The Alternative
by Shane C
Summary: The third of my forays into original Animorphs series-style books.  After a battle, Rachel is contacted by another being.  He teaches her an important lesson, but leaves her with a choice.  IC, follows original series, feedback appreciated. Rachel's POV.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Hi again! I'm having so much fun writing these, I decided to start another right on the heels of The Weapon. Like The Weapon and The Champion, The Alternative takes place in the same stretch of the invasion – after book 13, and before book 20. If you've read book 41, The Familiar, some of this is going to be..well, familiar, lol. It's similar, but also different in a few major ways. Sounds confusing…you'll see. Enjoy!

**The Alternative**

Chapter 1

My name is Rachel.

That's all you need to know. You don't need to know my last name. You don't need to know my exact age or my location. Names and places were probably changed at different points in this book. After all, this isn't an autobiography I'm writing. It's a record. A historical record of the war for Earth. Warning – what I'm about to say is going to sound crazy to 99% of you.

I'm not going to waste a bunch of time trying to convince you that the Yeerks are here. They are – whether or not you accept it, they're definitely here. For the sake of argument, let's say that you don't know about the invasion, but you're willing to take my word for it that it's happening. Well, okay then. You're going to need some details.

Yeerks are alien parasites. They've travelled to Earth from God-only-knows how far away, and they came for one reason. You.

Not _just _you. Me. Everybody you know. Everybody _I_ know. I said the Yeerks are parasites, but let me use a more accurate term – bodysnatchers. The Yeerks are bodysnatchers. They crawl into your head, link up with your brain, and take complete control. As a matter of fact, that's what my friends and I call someone who's been infested – a controller. They can access your memories, and they do a fantastic job of acting exactly like you did before you were a controller. No one knows that it's not you they're buying lunch for, or going to the movies with. No one knows it's a filthy alien that's stolen the body you've had since birth, and is using it to further the secret invasion of our planet.

To our knowledge, there are exactly six beings that resist them. I say six beings, because one of us is not human. The Yeerks aren't the only ones out there. Aximili, or Ax for short, is an Andalite. The Andalites are basically good, but they sort of gave the Yeerks the opportunity to go out into the galaxy, looking for new host bodies. The Yeerks stole Andalite technology, reverse-engineered it, and made their own spaceships and guns and whatever. You'd _think _that would make stopping the Yeerks priority numero uno for the Andalites, especially since they know the Yeerks are here, on Earth. We're not sure what they're waiting for, but Ax is positive that one day, the Andalites are going to come in, guns blazing, and save the day.

Until that day happens, myself, Ax, and my four human friends are the only thing mildly slowing the Yeerks down. We don't flatter ourselves – we all know that we're pretty much just something for the Yeerks to think about instead of an out-in-the-open threat. The only reason we have any chance at all is because of the morphing power.

Me, my cousin Jake, my best friend Cassie, Jake's partner-in-crime Marco, and this goofy-but-sweet guy named Tobias. We were randomly walking home from the mall together on the night our lives changed. Of course, we took the shortcut home, which happens to be this really creepy abandoned construction site. An Andalite (Ax's big brother, incidentally,) crash-landed his ship right in front of us, then told us about the Yeerks. He was injured, dying, and he wanted to give us a fighting chance. So he gave us each the morphing power, which I guess is the crown jewel of Andalite technology. We can turn into any animal we can touch, and it's the only reason we're not all dead a hundred times over.

Sure, there are drawbacks. Only two hours at a time in morph, or you're pretty much doomed to that body forever. It's happened already – Tobias got trapped in hawk morph just days after we received the power. Due to a trick of time by an uber-powerful being known as the Ellimist, Tobias has both the morphing power and his original human DNA. He made the decision to live as a hawk in order to be able to morph and help us fight. It's probably the single-most greatest act of courage I could think of.

Anyway, recently, we'd discovered and been working with a network of android spies called the Chee. The Chee are incredibly powerful. Unfortunately, their programming simply does not allow violence. I say unfortunately, because in a dangerous, lonely world, the Chee are about the only allies we have. And sometimes having them as an ally is more dangerous than not knowing them at all.

I was minding my own business, walking home from school. For once, Animorphs business was not foremost in my mind. It was Wednesday, the middle of the week, and I was entirely caught up in normal life. I was wondering if I should get ahead of my homework for the week, or put it off and catch up on some TV. I was thinking that, if my mom wasn't home by seven, I was going to order delivery from the new Chinese place, the one that had the awesome spicy peanut butter shrimp.

Just as I noticed a strange Honda parked on my street, in front of Mrs. Sparrow's house, the Honda spoke. "Rachel, come close," the familiar-but-urgent voice said.

I can almost see you rolling your eyes. '_Okay, this chick is already talking about alien invaders, turning into animals, and talking to Japanese imports in chapter one._' I warned you – it's crazy stuff.

I stepped closer to the car, almost leaning on it, and I finally slid inside of the hologram. I saw Erek, our main Chee contact. His normal hologram was that of an everyday guy my age. Inside of his hologram, though, I saw him as he really was – he looked as if he were an exact hybrid of dog and human. Well, if the dog-man stood on its hind legs and was made of metallic-looking bone. Not letting the weirdness factor get to me, I said, "What's up, Erek? This seems like a lot of trouble to say hello."

He nodded humorlessly. "The others are being contacted in pretty much the same way. It was too important to wait." I motioned for him to go on. "The Yeerks aren't waiting until they have the planet under control to begin using its natural resources. The Chee Network has discovered a manufacturing plant at the edge of town, Yeerk-controlled. They are calibrating to begin production of several parts. On the surface, these parts seem harmless or almost useless. The plant will actually be producing several important parts for Yeerk weapons – mainly Bug fighters, but also focusing on technology for Dracon weapons."

I smothered my impatience and tried to keep my voice level. "What are we waiting for?" I was trying to work on my impulsivity – my first instinct, no matter what, is usually to go for it. Going hard and fast was working for us so far.

Erek nodded. I closed my eyes and began to morph into my eagle, but Erek stopped me. "As I said, it's on the edge of town. I can get us there faster."

I stopped trying to morph and looked at him questioningly. "Just because you look like a car doesn't mean you're as fast as one." He smiled, and without waiting for my permission, he picked me up. Cradling me like a baby, his legs started pumping as he ran down the street. It took a few seconds for him to pick up speed, but when we reached the end of my street, we were _flying_. I would guess we were moving at over a hundred miles per hour, and his legs made whirring noises as we sped up further. "Okay, maybe you _are _as fast as a car," I yelled, thinking the wind would toss my voice away before Erek heard.

I was wrong – he snickered, an unsettlingly human noise. "Faster," he said. "There are only a few human vehicles that can keep up with me." The whine of his leg hydraulics blurred so fast it became one long, solid tone. My eyes watered from the wind, and I closed them. I tried not to think about what would happen if Erek wiped out – it would be like crashing a motorcycle doing three hundred MPH. Not very long after that, I felt the wind lessen and Erek's leg actuators started sounding more normal.

When the air stopped moving completely, I opened my eyes. "Thanks, Erek. You can set me down," I told him, a little subdued. Like I needed another reminder that Erek could end all of us pretty quickly if he got the idea. Most of my friends were there, and as I watched, a mail truck hurtled toward us. It stopped impossibly fast about five feet away, and the Chee dropped his hologram to reveal himself carrying Marco. Marco's expression went from amused and exhilarated to embarrassed as he saw us, and we wiggled violently until the Chee set him down.

I almost looked away instinctively as I saw Jake absentmindedly taking off his outer clothing, but of course we always went everywhere with morph-friendly clothing under our normal stuff. Anything skin-tight seemed to work. It had seriously cut back on my wardrobe, but I was adapting. Already I had built up a decent collection of great clothes that I could coordinate with a few different morphing suits.

"Okay, so everybody's been filled in on the situation?" Jake asked, obviously calling the meeting officially to order. I felt relieved that we wouldn't have to vote on going in or not – the fact that we were already here told me we were definitely taking immediate action.

(Yeah. What's the plan?) Tobias asked. He sounded committed but tense. Tobias has no problem hitting the Yeerks in the guerilla-style we'd adopted, he just liked things simple. Simple in, do the deed, simple out. Probably because that was how he hunted, quick and efficient. Our style of warfare seemed to be in line with that of nature's design of successful predators.

"Smash and dip," Jake said lightly, as if he were talking about a pick-up basketball game rather than a physical assault on others. "We need size – we're going to have to wreck their machines," he nodded to me, and I took it as the signal to morph.

My elephant morph is terrific. It's a majestic animal, a gentle giant. Well, gentle until someone makes it mad. Then it's a six ton wrecking ball with legs. But actually _morphing _it? That's a different story.

I thickened and grew. I must have looked like an obese giant for a minute, because I was almost fully elephant before my skin caught up, hardening and graying. Once I fell forward onto all fours, the rest of the transformation caught up. My features turned to that of the African elephant, and I once again started paying attention to Jake.

(Erek says there are maybe twenty controllers in the building right now. They're not expecting us, but they're ready for trouble. They've got at least two Hork-bajir hidden in there somewhere, maybe more. Not to mention they've got armed guards. So whatever this is, it's going to get messy, probably.) He was already in his own battle morph, a tiger.

(So, the actual goal?) Cassie asked, looking for clarification. She was already in wolf morph. She had started after me and had been done sooner. She's an _estreen_ – Ax's word for someone with a bizarre talent for the morphing power.

(We're here to shut them down,) Jake said simply. (I figure we go in, give Rachel a few minutes to destroy their equipment, and get out.)

(Generally just causing trouble, then,) Marco said. He did a King Kong chest-pound that looked pretty impressive, considering he was a silverback gorilla at the moment.

Ax had not morphed. He is definitely as dangerous as most Earth animals as an Andalite – the bladed tail was both powerful and accurate. Jake also likes to keep him as himself as much as possible when fighting the Yeerks – it reinforces their misconception that we're Andalite bandits, not human teens.

(Are we to use deadly force on the controllers?) Ax asked. It was a legitimate question – if the tables were turned, any controller in there would kill us without hesitation.

Jake didn't answer right away, and when he did, he didn't sound real enthusiastic. (If you have to, Ax. I'd prefer to injure or disable, but if you get into a situation that's you or them…well, just use your best judgment.)

"I can keep up the hologram that is hiding you until you move against the building in aggression," Erek told us. I gritted my teeth – he could bust up my afternoon to get us to attack a Yeerk target for him, but he couldn't even hide us once we started.

(Ready?) Jake asked. Everyone edged toward the building, waiting for the order. I reflected that, in a lot of ways, we _were_ becoming like a guerilla warfare unit. When no one answered him, Jake took our silence as consent. (Hit it!) he yelled, and we all took off running toward the factory as Erek's hologram fell.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The trumpeting yell I let out as I reached the building was pure elephant. I may be human, but my brain was currently elephant. That elephant brain was sending elephant adrenaline through my current, massive body. The elephant's instinct to attack had been triggered, and I fueled it on with my human intelligence.

(Here, guys – I'll open the door for you,) I said calmly, although there was nothing calm about the way I battered open the garage door on the side of the building. I started making the hole bigger, and a tiger shot by on my right, a wolf on my left.

(C'mon, Rachel,) Marco whined. (Move it!) With a final lurch, I completely tore the door down and stomped into the building. Belatedly, I heard both the roar of an angry tiger and the short pops of small arms fire. Handguns worked fine for _human _security – not the best thing to use against a cat twice as big as a large man. Not to mention an elephant – small bullets were ineffective for anything but making me mad.

As if on cue, my huge ears picked out the more subtle, high-pitched whine of Dracon beams being fired indoors. (Get going, Rachel!) Jake yelled. He sounded weary already.

Ah – what I was here for. I scanned the room with my big eyes, and saw several pieces of expensive-looking machinery littering the floor. I guess they were big – the elephant didn't see things in the same size as a person. There's not a whole lot that can be called big when you're an elephant.

I went to the nearest one and slammed my Volkswagen-sized head into it. It looked solid and metal, but it crunched nicely even before it teetered off of its stand and crashed on the floor. I turned and walked over another one, stomping it mercilessly. My friends were starting to wear down, I could hear it in their thought-speech.

(Behind you, Cassie!)

(You cut left, I'll cut right. Now!)

(Oww! I'm hit!)

(Marco just took a Dracon beam to the leg! Can you move?)

I smashed a fourth machine, and didn't see any more within range. Even though the small caliber handguns the controllers carried weren't much good on me, they were trying anyway. I felt repeated, deep stinging sensations. (All done!) I yelled. (What now, Jake?)

(We are outta here,) Jake replied instantly. (Marco, can you get to Rachel? She'll carry you out.) I looked around for him, but the elephant is pretty nearsighted – it must be pretty bad if Marco couldn't make it out under him own power. He yelled in pain, and I felt him drop onto my back from the catwalk above me. That should give you a pretty good idea of the strength of the African elephant – a six hundred pound gorilla landed on my back, and I was just like, '_Okay, so I got a rider. Big deal._'

I stomped out through the hole I'd made earlier, making sure to use my trunk to knock over a vending machine on the way out. (Go, Rachel, back to Erek! Get him out of here!) Marco was still moaning in pain through thought-speech. I guess it was my job to get him to a safe place to demorph.

(What about you?) I called as I reluctantly started doing an elephant jog up the hill, toward the Chee.

(I've got to get Cassie out,) he said desperately. (Ax is holding them off of her for now, but she's hurt.)

(I'm coming back!) I yelled, horrified at the thought of my best friend, hurt, and me running away from the scene. I actually turned around to do it.

(Got her! Keep going!) he yelled back. I almost argued, but another wail from Marco made me reconsider.

"You are hidden," Erek's voice said. Marco immediately rolled off of my back and began demorphing. I stayed in morph, about to go back and check on Jake and Cassie, when I spotted them cresting the hill. Jake was dragging Cassie by a mangled hind leg.

Cassie stirred as everyone started yelling her name, then quickly demorphed away from the pain, like Marco. Once everyone was back in human form, the arguing started. I ignored it and looked down on our scene of destruction, hidden by the Chee's holograms.

I turned away as the yelling became more intense, and tuned into the conversation. Marco was sitting on the ground, resting his head against a tree trunk. He seemed to be the one doing most of the yelling. "This isn't the kind of crap I signed up for! Yeah, I'm all for hurting the Yeerks when they shove it in our face, but this is almost the next town over! We are actively going out of our way, looking for fights! Not me, pal! Not anymore!"

"Chill out!" Jake barked, and for a wonder, Marco did. Marco wasn't backing down – the set of his jaw told me that. He was just ending the argument.

"He's right," Cassie said quietly. "When did we start _looking _for fights with the Yeerks? I thought this was about defending ourselves."

"We _are_," Jake said silkily. "We are playing defense by playing offense. It's really simple. Because we go on a quick hit now, that's ten less Bug fighters we have to worry about when this gets _really_ nasty." He thought. "Or twenty, or thirty. This war could very well come down to one Bug fighter factory that we destroyed before it became operational."

"_Really _nasty?" Cassie echoed. "Jake, this already is really nasty. Marco and I almost both died, doing a 'quick hit.'" She seemed to think it over for a minute. "I really think I have to put my foot down. I keep moving my boundaries over, and I constantly regret it. Look, when the Yeerks cause trouble in our town, we have to do something about that. But there's only six of us – we can't take on the Yeerks everywhere. I'm adopting a strictly-local policy."

Jake stared at her incredulously. Cassie and Jake were an item – in that they were attracted to each other and were basically committed as a couple. I'd never heard her blatantly go against Jake like this. I guess Jake hadn't, either. Ax looked off into the distance, looking edgy, like he wanted to leave. He didn't understand half of what went on between us, and he felt like that was too much missing information to judge us by. He rarely took sides in an argument, except to follow Jake blindly.

Tobias was the one to break the silence. (Whoa, Cassie, that's a little rash. We can't go dividing lines between us. We've got to stick together, everybody on the same page.)

She nodded, like she expected this. "That's what I've _been_ doing. Going along to get along. But instead of being tortured by doing things I never wanted to do, I'm just calmly letting you know where my line is. Do not cross my line." She tried to sound tough, but the last sentence came out more like pleading.

"Cassie, I get it," I told her. "But you can't put a limit on how much you're going to do for the cause. Either you're in or your out, you know? And if you're in, you have to be in all the way." Jake was nodding his agreement – I was saying the words he was too sensitive to say.

"Out, then," Marco said coldly. "If this is going to be a dictatorship, I'm out. I'll do what I need to do on my own." He looked at Jake. "Once you start agreeing with _Rachel's _philosophy, I gotta start to wonder if you're losing it. Plus…" he waved his hand toward our very recent attack, as if that said it all.

Jake turned red. He wasn't very easy to bother, he didn't rattle easily, but he had a temper. The good thing was that he rarely reached his breaking point. The bad thing was that he was almost at that point.

"You two want out? You think I'm leading us down the wrong path? Fine," he said brusquely. "Apparently you misunderstood who we are. We are the only resistance. _We are it_. This war would be impossible to win if there were six _hundred_ of us, and there's only six. We have to do everything we possibly can, and more. I'm with Rachel – if you don't get that, if you're not all the way in, then I'd rather you be out."

Now it was Cassie's turn to look shocked. I guess she'd expected Jake to just take her new condition to fighting in stride. But as he said, Jake _knew _who and what we had to be in order to have a puncher's chance.

I wasn't really taking this seriously. Cassie had expressed reservations to violence the whole time we'd been fighting. And this sure wasn't the first time Marco had whined and threatened to quit.

It was Marco who spoke. "If that's the way you feel," he said, trying to sound indifferent. "We can discuss the finer points of not being a group later. I am so over this right now." Without waiting for a response, he began morphing osprey. Cassie was crying a little, and she shot Jake a look that said _please, understand_. She also began morphing the exact same osprey.

Jake looked like a deflated balloon. "Anybody want to go with them? Now's the chance. If you're not in 100%, please leave." Ax stood fast, looking proud. I had already made my position clear, and felt no need to declare myself.

(That's harsh, Jake,) Tobias said. (I'm in, you _know_ I'm in. If I weren't, I wouldn't be living as a hawk. But you have to do a better job of keeping everybody together.)

"Why?" Jake asked. There was no anger in the question – it was just a word. "Why do I have to be the one? It's hard enough to fight, to try as hard as I do. So why should I be the one to have to baby Marco after a bad fight? Or deal with Cassie's impossible right-or-wrong questions?"

Now Ax fidgeted. Andalites don't approve of self-pity, and Jake was getting dangerously close to it. He decided to intervene before Jake could dig a hole. (Prince Jake, these are the burdens of command. They are not a pleasure, but a responsibility.)

Jake nodded, like Ax's words had made the world right, but he still looked troubled. I was less worried. "In a couple of days, they'll chill out and come around," I said confidently. "They know what they have to do – it's only natural to freak out about it after a good fight."

Erek offered to take us home. Jake told him no, thanks, that he'd fly, too. I agreed. A nice, leisurely flight home would take the edge off for everybody. We all began to shrink as we morphed our various birds of prey, and I was already thinking about my peanut butter shrimp again.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I know it might sound crazy to you, but for me, there is nothing more relaxing than a good fight.

Hear me out. I live my life in a constant state of fear, of hyper-awareness. Knowing you're the only one who knows about a secret, alien invasion isn't something normal people have to deal with. Most of the time, I was wound up so tight, it felt like I was just waiting for a spark to set things off. The word 'paranoia' doesn't begin to cover it.

At the same time, I have this power. The power to do something about it. Most of the time, I don't feel helpless at the thought of being found out. Most of the time, I feel like I could do something about it. If it weren't for this game I had to play, pretending to be totally normal, then I could _really _make a difference.

After a fight, it's pretty impossible to feel like you're not doing all you can. Every time I go into a life-or-death situation most people would cringe away from, I never know if I'm getting out. So when I _do _get out alive, there's a sense of accomplishment, of pride. It's about the only time when I feel like I can relax, and it doesn't last long. The next day, I'm right back to where I was, wound tight. But right _after_ the fight – that is _my_ time.

I said the heck with homework. It's a lot easier to not worry about it after you've taken Dracon fire that day. I was curled up on the couch, watching a funny movie and nibbling on my shrimp. My sisters brought blankets and snacks into the living room to join me. They'd started doing this as often as possible, and I realized with a pang that they were just trying to be around me while I was here. I was rarely around anymore. Sara and Jordan probably just thought it was the teenage thing that had me running the streets at all hours – either way, they were determined to be around me as much as possible.

My mom came home from work late, as usual, and found us like that in the living room. She brushed through the living room, still in work mode, leaving a wake of perfume. "Hey girls, how was your day?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Crazy, crazy at work today, sorry I'm late. What did you eat?" I was trying to focus on my movie, so I pointed to the kitchen. Her voice continued on as she left the room.

"Chinese again?" she asked, but I knew from experience my mom had already eaten at work. "Honey, you know the MSG isn't good for you…mmm, but these peanut-shrimp are fantastic." She quieted down for a second, long enough to scarf some shrimp, I guess. I used the reprieve to try to catch up on what I'd missed on the TV.

Shortly, my mom interrupted us again, and even little Jordan groaned. My mom gave her a funny look. "I'm going, I'm going. But look, we don't spend enough time together, and we live with each other. And now your dad lives in another state…I'm worried that you girls are left alone too much. He's offered to fly you out for one weekend a month, to spend some time with him. Does that interest you?"

My sisters started jumping around and yelling, generally making the movie unwatchable. I sighed, not because I didn't want to see my dad, but because I couldn't cut out of town whenever I wanted. Now I would have to think of an excuse to skip these scheduled visits without hurting my dad's feelings. My mom wasn't a problem – ever since the divorce, she'd been fiercely competitive with my dad. She'd see me staying as a victory, a tribute to her own mothering abilities.

Since watching the movie was out, I stood and stretched. My mom was already gone, trying to wind down before starting her next ridiculously full, early day. I hauled my comforter and pillow up to my room and shut the door.

The first thing I did was change into something comfortable to sleep in, but snug enough to morph, should the need arise. The second thing was to open my bedroom window as wide as it would go. I'd already knocked the screen out and stashed it in the garage. It was chilly tonight, but I always slept better when it was cold, anyway. Unless it was below freezing outside, I left the window open for Tobias.

What a weird relationship _that _is. I care about Tobias. I'm not sure if I'm feeling it right, but I even love him. Sure, part of it is the bond of having this secret that we can only talk to each other about. I don't focus on the stranger side of it – like, the part where he's a bird most of the time, and I'm a human. That's by choice – one day, when this is all over, he'll become human again. He says so and I believe him.

I just try to concentrate on the good parts – his slightly awkward sense of duty, how he can be smart without sounding like a nerd, and mostly how much goodness he has inside of him. Out of all of his problems, which are twice as numerous as any of the other Animorphs', he still reserves most of his concern for me and the others. He worries about us while I worry about him. Besides Cassie, he's one of the sweetest people I've ever met.

Unlike Cassie, though, he has a hard streak in him. He's not violent, and he doesn't love the fight. It's cheesy, but I look at Tobias like the sheriff of an old western. He's gentle and fair, until you make him mad or wrong him in some way. When you get on his bad side, he's quick on the draw and fast on the trigger. I like that about him.

Tobias often focuses on all the wrong parts of he and I. He worries about the things he's not able to easily do, like take me on dates or invite me over to his place to hang out. He cares enough about me to want me to have those things and be happy. What he doesn't understand is that I don't _need _all that to be happy. The war was both of our lovers for now, but when it was over, I would gladly trade it for Tobias.

I ended up doing my homework anyway, in the loosest sense of the word. I went through all of it, but when I was finished, I couldn't tell you what I wrote or if it even made sense. I shut off my light and got under the covers, thinking that if Tobias did come by tonight, I'd have him look my work over. As I drifted off to sleep, I got a whole different sort of visitor.

A hawk flew in my window, startling me awake. Tobias usually called out softly in thought-speech before he entered my room, so he wouldn't scare me. But that wasn't the only difference with this hawk.

I looked at him, and I thought I was half-asleep, at least. I was seeing a hawk, but I was also seeing what more there was to it in flashes. It was as if the hawk were a battery that was way overcharged, and energy kept spilling out of it in bursts. I got a sense of intelligence and superiority and even beauty, and it was the way I felt one other time, in the presence of one other being. I took a guess. "Ellimist?" I asked softly.

The reply was not thought-speech, though I didn't technically hear it with my ears. It was like the words blossomed in my own mind, as if they were my own idea. (Well done, Rachel. It is indeed the being you know as 'Ellimist.')

The last time we'd encountered this guy, he'd helped us out of a jam. In the most frustratingly roundabout way possible, he'd guided us to see a way out of an impossible situation we were in. Ax spoke of the Ellimist like he was a mean-spirited kid, someone who would trick and confuse you just because they could. And I _was _still slightly bitter at the way he'd played Tobias. I couldn't get mad - he didn't have to give Tobias the morphing power back at all. But it was still a little unfair in my mind – if you had the power to do that, you definitely had the power to make him human again. "Okay. This obviously isn't a social call. What do you want?" I tried not to sound upset.

Of course, the Ellimist could spin the world the opposite way if he felt like it. I didn't fool him. (You do not trust me, Rachel. This won't do – I can't show you what you need to see if you don't trust me.) He didn't wait for me to reply. (You are at a crossroad in your timeline right now,) he informed me. There was no denying the truth behind the words – it was as implied as the words he spoke in my head. (The others laugh and say you were born for this war, that you would be lost without it. They don't know how right they are. But what they don't realize is that they, too, were born for this war. An entire timeline shifts on your ability to keep them together, keep them doing what they were made to do.)

Even though there wasn't any doubting the truth of what he said, I also didn't doubt that he was working an angle. After all, I was fine with continuing the fight. It was the others that questioned it. "That's great. Why don't you show that to Marco, or Cassie? Or even Jake – it's his job to keep morale up," I said, slightly joking. The Ellimist, who was still shifting shapes faster than my brain could keep up, shook his heads sadly.

(No, it isn't. You have taken your role as a warrior seriously. You have been ignoring the part of you that was made to make peace.)

I gaped. "I'm no peacemaker," I argued. "I don't have the patience for it. My friends know what we have to do. It's hard enough without having to coddle anyone."

The Ellimist seemed to study me. (This is exactly why I can't just tell you what you need to know. You need to see it for yourself. You need to understand what your friends would be without this war. There is nothing sadder or more desperate than a warrior spirit with no war to fight. That's the only way you'll be able to see how instrumental your example and your support are to them. All of them.)

I thought fast. I'd been looking to square up with the Ellimist ever since he'd jerked Tobias around – now was my chance. "Are you planning on giving me a reward for doing what you want? Because I'll tell you what it is right now – you should give Tobias the deal he _thought _you were offering him in the first place."

The Ellimist seemed to grow sad at this. (Reward? Not this time – this is a reward in and of itself. I am offering the chance to save you and your friends – rather, I'm offering the power for you to do it yourself. The Animorphs were fractured today. I will not interfere, but I will show you what you need to see in order to set it right. I will give you the ability to interfere for yourself.)

Again, truth rang in his words, and grudgingly, I believed him. He would show me something that would allow me to somehow keep our little army together, at least for a while. I had never looked at that as my job, but that was exactly what the Ellimist was trying to tell me – that maybe I _should _be taking it more seriously. Maybe it _was_ my job. I sighed and committed. I reached my hand toward the Ellimist and said, "Thank you. I'll see whatever you want to show me." He nodded, as if he already knew my choice, and took my hand.

A/N – Just a friendly word – I'm sure everybody hates wading through these A/Ns, but I just want to reiterate how important to me it is to get reviews. They don't have to be butt-kissers, they can and should be honest as to what you think. Like with The Weapon, I have a tendency to get discouraged after I've hashed out a new idea and don't have much input. Don't think it'll be a problem anymore – I think I've gotten some pretty good readers. You know who you are ;D . But if you wake up and I've posted four chapters, you don't just have to review the last one. One thing I've learned about this site is the more reviews your fic has, the more readers it attracts. So, thanks a lot if you're one of the people leaving feedback! This fic is for you!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

As soon as the Ellimist touched my hand, everything disappeared, including him. Instantly, I was floating in an infinite starfield. Though the Ellimist's confusing body was gone, I could sense his presence, and he spoke.

(What you are about to see is very simple,) he explained. (I am not going to show you some make-believe version of your friends. I'm not going to show you something that is merely a possibility. I'm simply going to send you to an alternate timeline. Everything in your life and your world will be as you know it, with one difference. I will take away your meeting with Elfangor. Then, you can decide for yourself whether what you and your friends are doing is important or not.)

I wanted to ask a question, but I didn't have a body, either, which meant I didn't have a mouth. The Ellimist sensed my question, I guess, because he answered it. (You will wake up five years from the time I took you from your bedroom. Like I said, everything will be exactly the same, except you will not have met Elfangor. I will not take the journey with you – you need to experience it alone, without distraction. I will guide you when necessary, but from this point on, you are on your own.)

By the time the word 'own' was out of his mouth, or head, or wherever, I was sitting up in an unfamiliar bed. I looked around the small room, and the first thing I noticed was the institutional feel of the place. Almost instinctively, I knew I was in a college dorm room, although I'd never been in one.

The second thing I noticed was the bed exactly like mine on the other side of the room. A lump under the covers gave me pause – who would I be rooming with in college, if I'd never met Elfangor and learned of the Yeerks? I got out of the bed and walked over. I wasn't really worried about being timid or shy – this was just an alternate timeline, right? And I was supposed to see things? So it wouldn't do me any good to just try and fake my way through this alternate life of mine.

I poked the figure under the covers, and they groaned and rolled over. Cassie, looking right about five years older, peered out of the blankets at me. _Glared_ might have been more accurate. "It's Saturday," she accused. "You'd better have a good reason for waking me up on my sleep-in day."

I shrugged. To me, it wasn't Saturday. It was Wednesday night. "Look, just wake up. I need to talk to you." Cassie looked even more perturbed, but sat up. I waved my hand around the room. "So, obviously, we're in college, right?" I asked.

Cassie stared at me like I was a moron. "You woke me up at 6:45 on a Saturday to ask me if we're in college?"

I tried not to laugh. It must sound pretty ridiculous, from her point of view. I knew Cassie, though, and even if she _was _older, I could handle her. "Okay, sounds dumb. I want you to pretend like I hit my head and I don't know anything. What school are we at?"

She was still looking at me with that dealing-with-a-lunatic expression, but she sighed and decided to play along. "The junior college. The one in town. Are you feeling all right?"

"I'm a little confused," I said honestly. If the Ellimist was trying to convince me I was on the wrong path by showing me a well-adjusted college student, well, I wasn't getting it. "So, if we go to the junior college, why do we live here? It's, like, ten minutes from my house."

Cassie was staring at me in open shock, now. "Are you serious?" I nodded impatiently, and she sighed again. "I can't believe you're going to make me hash this out just so you can play a game, but whatever. Your mom does live twelve blocks away…are you sure you want me to talk about this?" she asked again. When I nodded, she bit her lip and continued. "You and your mom haven't spoken since your…falling out. You haven't seen or talked to your mom since you were seventeen. Are you happy?" she asked bitterly, and I reminded myself that she thought she was talking to another person.

I wasn't happy, I was confused. What could me and my mom possibly have argued about that would have ensured an at-least three year silence? And the Ellimist wanted me to see how terrible Cassie's life would be if she hadn't met Elfangor – so far, she was exactly what I would have expected.

"What was the fight about?" I asked. Her eyes fixed onto a point far away, and quickly began swimming with tears. She shook her head violently, and the message was clear – _this _was a game she would not play with me.

I decided I'd tortured not-quite-Cassie for long enough. I'd come back if there was anything else to see – right now, it was just a grumpy and now-upset college student. "Sorry. Hey, go back to sleep. I'm going to…run some errands," I said lamely. Cassie seemed all too willing to roll back under the covers.

I opened the closet on my side of the room, instinctively looking for some skin-tight clothing to put on first. I couldn't find any, and it hit me like a bolt of lightning – _I didn't need it. I couldn't morph._ The feeling was indescribable. The power to morph had been such a part of me, something I had begun to take for granted. I couldn't morph into an eagle and fly around to find my friends. If a controller rolled up on me, I'd have nothing but my fists to defend myself. It left me feeling weak and naked.

Numbly, I threw on an outfit and left the room as quietly as I could. I emerged into a strange, barren hallway, but I wasn't thrown off. It was easy to see where the dorm opened up into more common areas, and I went there. Again, empty, but that wasn't strange – according to Cassie, it was before seven am on Saturday morning. I let the sunlight filtering through the glass doors warm me for a moment, and I stepped outside.

Again, I looked around, looking for the dramatic stuff the Ellimist wanted me to see – again, nothing unusual. I figured it was the Animorphs themselves I was supposed to encounter, so I checked the small bag that had been hanging on my bedpost. Nice – I had almost two hundred bucks, cash. I almost wondered how I'd come by it, if I wasn't speaking to my mother, then shrugged as I figured I'd just gotten a part-time job in this alternate world. I hailed a cab and got into the back. I told the driver Jake's address, and he booked it.

Fifteen minutes later, I handed the cabbie a few bills and got out of the car. Jake's familiar house loomed in front of me, and I took it in. The shutters were a different color, and the car in the driveway was a few model years newer than Jake's parents' station wagon from my time, but everything else looked similar.

I went boldly up the front steps and rang the doorbell. Whatever else was different in this when, me and Jake would still be fairly close – I was sure of it. We were never best friends, but we were always sort of close.

Jake's mom, my aunt, answered the door, and I almost took a step back. I couldn't believe how old this woman in front of me looked. She looked like she'd aged twenty years, not five.

She actually _did _take a step back when she saw me. "Rachel?" she asked, as if she couldn't quite believe it.

I tried a lighthearted smile. "It's me, Aunt Jean. Is Jake around?"

I expected her to invite me in, or to tell me that Jake was out. I wouldn't have even been surprised if she'd told me that he was away at school at Tulane, or Rutgers, or West Point. She put her hand over her mouth and looked at me like I had morphed into a rattlesnake. I stood there, looking confused, as she began to cry.

"Rachel, honey, it's good to see you, it really is. But _this _isn't funny at all." She studied me, hard. "I can't believe you're going to make me say it, like you don't already know. Jake is dead, Rachel."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

After I got over the shock of the news about Jake, I tried to get his mom to tell me what had happened. She just gave me another look, like she was ashamed of me, and closed the door in my face. She didn't slam it – the gentle way in which she closed it and locked it was even worse, somehow. I stumbled down the front walk, stunned. I didn't know what to do next. I remembered Cassie's reaction to me asking what my mom and I had fought about, and now I thought I understood a little. '_Apparently, me and my mom's fight had something to do with Jake's death. That means I can't go to her – at least not yet. I need to find out what happened._'

As I thought about how I could get some information, Marco popped into mind. Marco was Jake's best bud – he would definitely know. Not only that, but Marco and I had only talked a few times before we became Animorphs together – _he _wouldn't know I was acting out of character, at least.

Instead of getting another cab and spending money to ride around when I didn't even know where I was going, I walked to the corner. The old gas station was still there, though it proclaimed a new owner on the sign. I went to the phone booth outside of it and flipped through the phone book. I found Marco's last name, and saw his first name as I was scanning the registry. I dialed the number listed, and after five rings, he answered.

"Hello?" he grumbled. He sounded terrible – not just because his voice was thicker and scratchier, either. It sounded like a man on his deathbed. I didn't give it too much weight, though – Marco had always been a drama queen, especially first thing in the morning.

I kicked myself for not planning something to say. "Marco? It's Rachel. You know, Jake's cousin." A long silence met my words, so I continued on. "Look, I know you don't know me all that well, but I really need to talk to you."

"About what?" he asked reluctantly.

I decided to try a lie. People got amnesia, right? "I don't know, exactly. I woke up in the hospital yesterday, and I don't remember anything for about the past five years. I need some help."

Marco snickered. "Yeah, right. You don't remember anything, but you think to call me? A guy you don't even know? Makes sense," he said sarcastically, then his tone got serious. "Look, what do you want? I'm broke if you're selling something."

My frustration with the situation boiled over. "I need to know what happened to Jake. Last thing I remember, he was alive and well. While I'm at it, I also need to figure out why everyone in my family hates me. Either you'll help me or you won't, but don't waste my time, Marco."

A long pause, then, "All right. I'll play along. But Jake isn't something I talk about over the phone. Meet me at McDonald's in twenty minutes. I have to do something there, anyway." He hung up without waiting for an answer.

Fifteen minutes later I was sitting in the restaurant, munching some fries to try to settle my stomach. This alternate reality was unsettling, and not just because things were different. Trying to figure out what I'd be like if the war had never happened…I just didn't know who I'd _be_. It's a strange thing when the world around you changes – it's even stranger when _you've _changed.

I had to do a double take at the guy who entered the restaurant to be sure it was Marco. He'd never been particular about his clothing – his idea of high fashion was a shirt with a collar on it. But this guy couldn't even be downclassed to grunge. Ripped shirt, torn jeans, flip flops, unkempt hair way overdue for a trim, two weeks worth of stubble on his face…he looked homeless.

As I watched, he nodded to a guy that was working behind the counter. He placed a small order, but handed the cashier more than money. It looked like a medium sized Ziploc full of something. Marco's "change" was a stack of bills. He took his sandwich, scanned the room, and started toward me unenthusiastically when he found me.

"I'll bet you thought that was slick," I said to him as he sat down. I knew he didn't really know me on this timeline, but I was disgusted. "So what, you're a drug dealer now?"

He looked around frantically, as if I'd yelled the word "Yeerk." "Shh! Come on!" He settled down a little when he realized no one was paying attention to him. "I'm not a drug dealer. I just do people…favors. What do you care, anyway?"

I was still mad at him, even though I didn't exactly know _this_ Marco. "I care because you're better than that. Not to mention your clothes – why would you go in public like this?"

He shrugged and pushed his dirty hair out of his eyes. "Why not? It doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters! You used to care what people think. What happened to you?"

He gave me a look that chilled my anger. "What happened to me?" he repeated. "You _know _what happened to me."

"No, I don't! I'm serious, Marco – I don't remember anything that happened since roughly junior high. What happened to Jake?" I said, getting to the meat of the conversation. Somehow, Jake had affected everybody in this timeline.

Marco studied me for a long moment, and I took the opportunity to notice a few things about him. His eyes didn't have that brightness I remembered. Marco always looked on the verge of a great joke, back when I knew him. He was smart, quick, and calculating. He often used these admirable qualities to make everyone around him laugh.

This Marco looked like he couldn't care less about everything. The shine in his eyes was gone, replaced by a dull hopelessness, the stare of a don't-care slacker. Worse, he seemed defeated. It was in his posture. To me, it was clear that this was a guy who had given up.

"All right, look. If you really don't remember, this is going to be hard. For both of us," he clarified. "I don't talk about him. I don't think about him, if I can help it." I nodded my understanding. He sighed. "Look, Jake killed himself a few years back."

Instinctively, I laughed. "Very funny." His expression didn't change. "You're lying. It's some sort of joke. I may not remember anything for the last few years, but Jake would _never_ do that. He doesn't have it in him."

Marco looked away. "That's what _I_ thought, too. And you, obviously. I guess it's why I didn't help him when he asked for it, and I didn't take him seriously when he told me he was about to take drastic steps."

"I still don't believe it. How can they be sure it was a suicide?" I asked. I just couldn't wrap my head around _any _Jake that would have been cowardly enough to take his own life.

Marco ignored the question and told the story. "A few years ago, Jake came to me. He told me that everything was wrong, that he might be going crazy. He thought that someone had replaced Tom with some kind of copy," he chuckled, but it was entirely without humor. "He tried for weeks to convince me of it. Every day that went by, he was getting more and more convinced that something was not right with his brother. I ignored it. I told him to quit bugging me about it," he said this last part emotionlessly, and it sounded like a confession.

He didn't look away as he pointed to me. "The next person he went to for help was you. He told you about his suspicions. He must have done a better job convincing you than he did me, because for the two weeks leading up to his death, you two were inseparable. It's ironic that you don't remember – if you did, I'd be the one asking you questions. About what he was doing right before he died…about what he found out…" he trailed off.

"So we found something out? About Tom?" I asked eagerly. _This _was what I'd been hoping for – not under these circumstances, but I wanted to think that I'd have figured the Yeerks out with or without Elfangor. It was stupid – _nobody_ knew about the Yeerks. That was the whole point of their slow, secret invasion.

"I don't know," he said. "All I know is on the night he died, you and him had a massive throwdown with his family. Your mom got involved. Nobody in his family will tell me what the fight was about, but it was _insane_. You moved out of your mom's that night, and nobody saw you for months. Jake called me…right before. I'll never forget what he said," Marco let emotion slip into his voice, breaking through his I-don't-care façade. "He said, 'Something's definitely wrong with my family, especially Tom, and I can prove it.' I remember that so well, because I remember thinking he sounded more like himself. Better, you know?"

"So he called you with some optimism, and then offed himself?" I asked, confused.

"I guess," Marco said. "Like I said, he'd been in this funk for the previous couple of weeks. A deep depression. The reason he called me that night was to ask if he could hide out at my place for a while, if he needed to. It was so weird – it was like he was making plans for the future just hours before he killed himself."

That was too much. This version of Marco might be a depressed drug dealer, but deep inside, he was still Marco. "And you didn't find that suspicious at all? Come on, that's setting off my alarm bells. Your BS meter must have been through the roof."

He nodded. "Sure, it's suspicious. But the police that responded were 100% it was a suicide. He used his dad's handgun. They did a full investigation – unless you're implying the _cops _had a reason to lie about it."

I laughed. Of _course _the cops had lied. They were controller cops covering up for Tom. There wasn't any way for Marco to know that, but it still made me mad. I'd seen him figure all kinds of abstract stuff out – what made him give up on this so easily?

He answered my unasked question. The one thing Marco was better at than seeing through BS was self-preservation. "Anyway, there were two possibilities. One, that Jake had found something out that was terrible enough to take his own life. Two, what he'd stumbled on was _dangerous. _Add that to the way you split town right afterwards, and I wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to investigate."

I decided that it was time to change the subject. "All right, so you wussed out of investigating your best friend's shady suicide." He looked at the floor. "What's your excuse?" I asked.

He looked genuinely confused. "Excuse for what?"

"Excuse for _yourself_. Why are you a drug dealer? Why is your life worthless?" I asked bluntly.

He got mad. "Who the hell are you to judge? I don't even _know _you. You talk about me like you know everything." His eyes narrowed. "What's _really _going on here?"

'_Ask him if he's happy,' _a small voice in my head prompted. "Are you happy with your life?" I asked him.

All the anger seemed to leave him. "No. Of course not. Things started going downhill when my mom died. Then Jake…I started running with a rough crowd when that happened. My dad couldn't deal with being by himself all the time, and took off. I guess. Nobody knows what happened to him – he was just gone one day." He gestured to himself. "I don't want to be like this. I just am. The worst part is this little voice that's always telling me I'm a waste. That feeling that I'm supposed to be doing something great and meaningful, but instead I date a skank that works at the multiplex and sell dime bags to losers to pay my rent." He looked at me hopefully. "The reason I'm here is that same little voice that tells me I'm worthless also spoke up when you called. It told me to meet you, and I thought that if I did, maybe I'd finally get right. That you could set me straight."

I got a response I assumed was from the Ellimist. It was a wordless, resounding NO. It stopped me just before I told him the truth about what was really going on. I knew that I could break this Marco out of his funk with just a few words, but the Ellimist was telling me not to say them. Instead of coming clean, I reached out and grabbed his hand. I looked into his eyes.

"You _are _meant for something great. You gave up on yourself. If you want to change your life, you need to change it. You're the only one that can." I wanted to say more, but I couldn't. Instead, I stood up and left this sad version of my friend Marco behind.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

As I walked to my old school, I tried to figure out what I was supposed to be learning here. So far, I'd met Cassie and Marco. Cassie seemed to be doing fine – college student and all, rooming with her childhood best friend. _That _was okay with me, and it led me to the conclusion I'd always suspected – if the war had never happened, Cassie would be just fine. As I had this thought, though, a…I don't know, a _tenor _of disapproval went through me. I guess it was the Ellimist's way of telling me I was wrong, but I didn't see how.

Marco – where to begin? Marco was always a wild card. He switched teams at random, according to how he felt about the particular issue. Not to say he was wishy-washy – actually, it was more like he was supernaturally open-minded. He didn't prejudge _anything_. He just listened, ran information through that super-analytical mind of his, and made informed decisions.

I was disinclined to believe this version of him. I just couldn't see him turning into a scumbag, no matter _what _had gone on in his life. As a matter of fact, the harder the war got, the more resilient it seemed to make him. Maybe that was the point – maybe without a purpose, this was Marco's fate. This Marco seemed to be a beacon for the phrase 'wasted potential.'

I got to the school, and belatedly, I realized that it was Saturday. No one would be here, except maybe some of the staff. That was okay – that was why I was here. The only connection I could think of between Tobias and I before our meeting with Elfangor was that we'd had the same guidance counselor.

I entered the building and made my way to the career center. The halls were completely devoid of life, but _someone _had to be here – after all, the lights were on and the doors were unlocked. Sure enough, my old/current counselor was in her alcove, typing furiously on her keyboard.

"Mrs. Talbot?" I asked hesitantly. I wasn't sure she'd remember me, especially if I'd skipped town at seventeen.

Instant recognition lit up her features, and I could see nothing but welcome. "Rachel? My goodness, girl, it is so _good _to see you!"

I smiled and gave her a polite half-hug. "You, too." Before I could ask about Tobias, she hit me with a barrage of questions. I made up answers that I thought were likely, but I also learned a few things by listening. According to Mrs. Talbot, apparently my excuse for leaving town was going to live with my dad. Also, she wasn't surprised to hear I was attending the local junior college – apparently, I'd visited her before enrolling and enlisted her help in getting some scholarships.

As her questions seemed to be winding down, I took my opportunity. "So listen, Mrs. Talbot, I was coming to ask you about a student of yours. A guy I kind of knew. I was thinking of looking him up, and you might not have any idea where he is, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask."

She looked thrilled at the possibility of putting two former students in touch. "I never forget a face or a name," she said. "You tell me who you're looking for, and I'll tell you what I know."

"His name's Tobias," I said. I pretended to struggle with the last name for a second before saying it. I was prepared to be disappointed. What I _wasn't _ready for was disapproval, which was exactly how Mrs. Talbot was looking at me.

"Rachel, you should know better than to associate with people like that," she scolded. I couldn't hide my surprise – Tobias had been an above-average student with a sweet demeanor. She shook her head again. "Really, dear."

"What did he do?" I asked, morbidly fascinated. If Marco wasn't what I expected, I sure didn't know what to think about the way this woman was talking about Tobias.

She bit her lip, like she didn't want to tell me, but her tone of voice was gossipy. "It's not what he did. It's what he became. Filthy…" she shuddered at the thought of something, and now I was _really _intrigued. "Of course, this is all hearsay. All I know is what is alleged against him in the papers."

My mouth opened in shock. "The papers?"

She looked glad that she'd gotten across to me what a bad egg Tobias was. "That's right. He's arrested on a monthly basis, it seems. They haven't gotten any charges to stick, but we'll all be better off when they do."

"But what did he do?" I asked, trying to suppress the instinct to automatically defend Tobias.

"Drugs, weapons, prostitution, illegal gambling, racketeering…it's always something different."

I couldn't hold back a snorted laugh. "So you're saying he's a mob boss?"

She gave me a disapproving look. "Not in his wildest dreams. Slumlord would be more accurate."

I sighed – this wasn't going to look good. "Say I wanted to find him anyway. Where would I go?"

Mrs. Talbot shook her head in contempt. "I don't know _why_ you would subject yourself to him. I highly advise against it. If you just _had _to see him, you'd go to the Razor Club. At least, that's always where the cops haul him out of when they make an arrest. But honey, that's a really nasty part of town. You're too good for it. I recommend that you forget about that clown and focus on your education."

I promised her that I wouldn't go, that it was just curiosity that made me ask. We made all the usual promises – that I would stay in touch, stay in school, all that junk. As soon as I got outside, I started looking for a taxi. Looked like I was going to the West End – a place I'd avoided even when I had been morph-capable. Tobias, a criminal? I didn't believe it, and I _wouldn't _believe it until I saw it for myself.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N – I just want you to know that while I started this off like one of K.A.'s alternate future books, that's not what it's all about. I just read back what I have so far, and it just seems like another take on something that's already been done. Well, in a way, it _is_, I guess. But the last half of the fic will be something new to you, and should be enough to hold your interest. Anyway, enjoy the rest. Love you for reading :D

Chapter 7

I stood across the street from the Razor Club, painfully aware that I was lacking my various morphs in this timeline. I wanted to go into the club, but the six thugs standing by the door gave me pause. They had already noticed me, of course – they took sexual harassment to a new level, although they hadn't crossed to my side of the street to follow through on anything they'd said. Resigning myself to the fact that nothing would happen to me that the Ellimist didn't intend, I briskly crossed to the covered front door.

"Oh yeah! Somebody _does _want to party, after all," the largest of the men, clearly the leader, said as he stepped into my path. I ignored the feeling of being afraid and looked him dead in the face.

"You might want to move. I'm good friends with Tobias – think he'll be interested to hear how you treated me?" It was a bluff, but after what Mrs. Talbot had told me, I thought it had a good shot at having an effect.

It worked like a charm. I hid a smile as the men melted away from the door, muttering apologies. I breezed into the club like I belonged there, and took a moment to stand in the foyer and allow my eyes to adjust to the sudden dim. It seemed like every light in the place was directed at the small stage upon which a topless woman was dancing. The room was set up to hold about a hundred people, but this early in the day there were only four guys, each sitting by themselves at a different table. Before I could try to figure out where to go next, a man got my attention.

I hadn't noticed him at first, due to the fact that he was dressed in all black and standing in the shadows beside the front door. Beefy didn't even begin to cover his physique – the guy was _huge_. Fortunately, he was also way more businesslike and polite than the club warranted.

"Are you sure you're in the right place?" he asked, actual sincerity tinting his words. "If you're lost, I can help you find your way back to the city. This isn't the place for a girl like you."

I gave him a grateful smile. "I don't _think _I'm lost. I'm trying to find my friend, Tobias."

His expression lost all of its friendly helpfulness. He studied me hard for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was all business. "Are you a badge? Because if you are, I'm going to need to see a warrant before you take one more step."

"What? No!" I said, surprised. "Do I look like a cop?"

"Well…no," he allowed, but he was still dead serious. "Okay, if you're not a cop, what's your business with Tobias?"

"I told you, he's a friend. An _old _friend. Just tell him I'm here to see him." I gave him my first and last name, and he looked at me suspiciously for another short moment before he disappeared through an inconspicuous door behind him. I stared at the threadbare carpet as I waited, not wanting to see the sad stripper or draw attention from the sad men watching her.

"He said he'll see you," the big guy told me as he reappeared. "Follow me." I did, through the nearly-hidden door and down a passageway that was too narrow to be called a hall. The guy gestured to a door at the end, and stood beside it, clearly meaning to stay outside while I went in. Reminding myself that this was what I was here for, I pushed the door open and stepped through.

The first thing that surprised me was the quality of the small office I'd entered. It looked like it belonged in my mom's law firm, not some nasty strip club. Beautiful tapestries covered most of the wall space, and a thick Persian rug graced the floor. A large mahogany desk dominated most of the floor space, and behind it sat an almost-stranger.

After a couple of seconds, I ascertained that it _was _Tobias, but I had to search for him in the face before me. Tobias, as long as I'd known him, had worn his hair in a longer style. This young man had close-cropped hair, almost a buzz cut. His face was cleanly shaven, which allowed me to see the prominent scar that dominated his chin. His teeth were clean and white, though, and his eyes were clear, intelligent.

We stood there for a moment, silently studying one another. I knew that I'd been the one to show up at his place, and I should also be the one to break the silence. I found myself unable as I took in all the details of this version of the boy I cared so much about. Inexplicably, even though I knew he was a criminal, I was attracted to him. He _was _handsome, but he was also dangerous. It was an aura he had around him…nothing overt, but I was able to compare him to the Tobias I knew. The difference was like day and night.

He was the one to speak first, and he did so in a polite, cultured voice. "Rachel, it's a pleasure to meet you. I suppose you know that I knew your cousin, Jake. He was a friend to me, which is why you're standing here. What can I do for you?"

I was so enraptured by studying the nuances of his manner and speech, so different from what I knew, that I couldn't think of a response for a moment. He waited politely, and I finally pulled myself together. "Jake told me about you, before he died," I lied, not knowing where I was going with it, but knowing I had to say _something_. "He spoke pretty highly of you. So when I saw you in the newspaper, I came to see what was up with you for myself."

I expected him to get defensive or to throw me out. Instead, he leaned back in his expensive chair and smiled broadly. "Of course, the allegations that were in the local newspaper were just that – allegations. I'm a completely reputable, legal businessman."

I felt impatience creep in. This Tobias was smart enough to have pre-programmed answered to all the common questions. Looked like I was going to have to ask him some _uncommon _questions. "Cut the crap. If you were so respectable, you wouldn't be working out of a dump like this." His carefully cultured smile changed. It went from being inviting to being cautious in an instant. "I'm not a cop and I'm not a reporter. I don't care exactly what you're doing. I just want to know why."

He considered this for a brief moment. His smile was completely gone. He spoke carefully and clearly. "I'm not sure I understand what you're asking me."

I shrugged. "I mean, you used to be a good kid, a good person. I want to know why you changed into this."

"I'm going to ignore your implication that I'm no longer a good person, even though you don't know me, personally," he said, still cordial. He motioned for me to take the seat across from his desk, and I did. "I'm going to speak candidly with you, because I owe your cousin. Doing something for you that I don't normally do is the only way I can pay him back, now."

"Okay. I don't want you to admit to anything, Tobias, that's not the point." His eyes flashed when I said his name, like I'd stunned him, but he covered it instantly. "I just want to know why you're here instead of at a good school somewhere, or working a good job or whatever. What happened to you?" I said this last part gently.

He looked far away for a moment, then his smile returned. "It's ironic," he said simply.

"What is?"

"The fact that your cousin had such an impact on my current status, and here you are, asking about it."

"What?" I asked, confused. Was he implying that Jake had led him down this bad road?

I guess he saw my misunderstanding, and hurried to correct it. "No, no, not like that. I mean, had your cousin not…passed away…in such an untimely manner, it's pretty likely I would be doing exactly what you said. Going to school, or working a white collar job." His smiled brightened, and he actually laughed. It was a pleasant sound, and once again, I marveled at how attracted I was to this Tobias, who clearly operated outside of the law. "What I mean is that Jake was pretty much the only positive influence I had, back when I was younger. He first protected me, then took me under his wing. Sure, he didn't spend much time with me, and he never made it obvious he was looking out for me. In that inconspicuous way of his, he just lead by example. I wanted to be just like him," he said, his eyes far away and misty.

"So what happened?" I asked, enthralled. "I mean, I know he killed himself and all," I said, giving the story that everyone seemed to believe, "but didn't you want to honor his memory? You know, be more like him since he was gone?"

The far-away look changed, turning sour. "Yeah, I did. But you see, the fact was that Jake _had_ protected me from the worst of things. When he was gone, I was fair game. I got beat on mercilessly at school, then was tortured even more once I got home. Sometimes I didn't even make it to or from school – the neighborhood I lived in was…less than decent. I had two choices – adapt or die. I wouldn't have made it this far if I'd been the person I wanted to be. It's a sad fact, but I had to become what I hated to survive." He saw the sadness with which I was looking at him, and graced me with another handsome smile. "It's not as bad as it sounds. My life is better than I had any right to expect, and it's that way because I _made _it that way. I do things that I don't like, but I do them my way. I deal with people I don't like associating with, but I do it on my terms."

I tried to think of something to say, but drew a blank. He filled the silence for me. "I'm curious as to why _you're _so curious. It isn't like we know each other. And the way you're looking at me...you look too sad. You look like you're emotionally invested in me, and you just realized that investment is worthless." His extremely intelligent eyes bored into mine speculatively.

I still couldn't think of anything to say, but fortunately, he didn't pursue his line of questions. He leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "I know what I am. I know I'm likely to wind up dead or in prison at a young age. But I am what I am – a product of my environment. It doesn't make me sad, so it shouldn't upset you. I appreciate your concern – if that _is _why you're here – but I do need to get back to work," he said, politely letting me know the conversation was over. I heard the door open quietly behind me – apparently, the big guy who'd led me here had been listening in. "Thank you for coming, Rachel. And, like I said, regardless of how I turned out, I _do _owe Jake. Since I can't repay him, that debt is transferred to you. Paul will give you a less conspicuous way to contact me, in case you ever need a favor." He gestured to the burly bodyguard.

I stood to leave, my head spinning, but I smiled at him. "Even though we don't exactly know each other, maybe we're a little closer than you think. Regardless of what you do, _I _know you're a good person, Tobias. I _know_." He gave me a little, confused smile, and I left his office.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N – Do me a favor. If you're going to add me to your author alerts and favorite stories and all that, please leave a short review. It's maddening and confusing to get the e-mails telling me so many people are adding my stuff to their favorites, but not leaving a review. Thanks.

Chapter 8

I assumed I wasn't going to be able to see Ax's alternate future, if he even had one. In my normal timeline, we'd rescued him from the bottom of the ocean in the nick of time, moments before Visser Three found him. Ax was really brave, and a good fighter, but I really didn't have any doubt that without our help, he'd have been done for.

With that thought, as I rode in the slightly stinky cab back to the school, I figured I'd seen all I needed to see. I thought about the purpose behind this little vacation the Ellimist had provided. I was supposed to see things that would convince me that we were destined for the war against the Yeerks, and I was pretty convinced. By changing the one event in all of our lives that had started our fight, everybody was looking at pretty bleak futures, which was ironic. My friends were under the impression that our lives would be better, easier, without Elfangor's interference. Well, for a while, anyway – we all knew that eventually, without resistance, the Yeerks would completely take over. But there was still that feeling of a stolen youth, an understated bitterness at being drafted on the losing side.

What the Ellimist was trying to show me was that our meeting with Elfangor was a privilege. That without it, we'd have been generally lost and useless. I wasn't sure how that made me feel – everybody likes to think that they can make it no matter what. If I took him at his word, that this wasn't a trick and these were the actual lives we'd be living without our fight against the Yeerks, then it made things pretty clear. I never had any doubt that we'd still fight on without his interference – like I said, Cassie and Marco would come around. Marco had a tendency to overreact, and I couldn't really blame him for this one – he'd had his entire leg almost sheared off by a Dracon beam. Cassie's reluctance was redundant, too. When she realized she couldn't nitpick the ins and outs of fighting the Yeerks, she'd be back with us. I knew her well enough to know that leaving us to fight without her would be harder for her than fighting with us.

Maybe the Ellimist's point wasn't that we _had _to fight. Maybe it was that we _got _to fight. I mean, here I was in this time and place where the Yeerks didn't exist for us. Not yet, anyway. And things were worse. I found myself yearning for my own time, where my friends were the people I knew, and the world, however crazy, was simple. We knew who we were, and we knew what we had to do. It sounds pretty basic, but how many people can say that?

The cab pulled onto campus and headed for the building I thought was my dormitory, but before I got there, my attention was grabbed by a gathering in a small courtyard. I saw several people sitting behind tables littered with sign-up sheets. I saw Cassie, manning one of the tables, and smiled. My smile quickly turned into an _O _of surprise as I saw the sign beside her. It read – _The Sharing celebrates its 1,000,000__th__ member! Don't miss out – join today!_

I barely had time to think, '_Cassie? A controller? Cassie?_' before I was instantly floating in the abstract starfield.

(Now do you understand, Rachel?) the Ellimist asked. (Do you see what is at stake?)

I felt a flash of annoyance – of _course _I did. I always had. I felt his amusement, and he said, (That is not what I meant. Was meeting Elfangor and starting the resistance beneficial to you and your friends?)

As he finished his question, I finally understood. You know how that last puzzle piece sometimes falls into place randomly, and you achieve a new, deeper level of understanding of something? Like, when you have someone's name on the tip of your tongue for weeks, and finally, some stupid commercial on TV finally gives you some abstract clue that lets you remember? That's what happened – I finally understood what he'd been trying to tell me all along.

I'd never had any doubt that what we were doing was crucial to the human race. I knew that the fight was of the utmost importance for my family and people that I knew. I knew it was vital even to people in China or India, people I'd never met and never would meet.

What I'd never stopped to consider was, that as important as our resistance was to others, that it was every bit as important for us, personally. We'd been looking at it like a burden we bore for the people of Earth. But how many people would give up their lives to bear the exact same burden? Just because they didn't know the Yeerks were invading didn't change the fact of the matter that, if they did, they'd fight just as hard as we did. We'd thought that it was just our bad luck to run into Elfangor and have to do this – what we never got, what the Ellimist had shown me, was the exact opposite. We weren't unlucky – we were the luckiest people on the planet. We hadn't been tortured, we'd won the lottery.

I felt the Ellimist's pleasure as these thoughts ran through me. (Yes. That is all I wished for you to see, to understand. Such a minor distinction, but so important, nonetheless. Do you think you can carry on, knowing what you know now? Did it help?)

After thinking about it for a second, I realized that it _did _help. I had buried it down, away from even my own self-awareness, but it had been there – resentment. General resentment, toward the Yeerks, Elfangor, and the whole world. I'd seen the same resentment in every one of my friends, at some point. It wasn't totally gone, but it was out in the open, now. I acknowledged it, understood it, and felt a sense of peace. Fighting was a privilege – that idea resounded with rightness. My resolve strengthened exponentially, and not just toward my personal role in the fight. I resolved to try to help the others achieve this understanding and inner-peace with what we were doing. Wordlessly, I thanked the Ellimist.

He chuckled inside of my head, even though I didn't quite _have _a head. (No need to thank me, Rachel. After all, I did not interfere. I simply allowed you to understand. You came to this conclusion on your own. Congratulations,) he said sincerely. I felt myself drifting away, and I knew that my encounter with the Ellimist was over – this time, at least. I knew instinctively that this being would play a very important role in my life in the years to come.

Before I was totally gone into the nothingness that I was gravitating toward, the Ellimist told me one last thing. (Remember, Rachel, it is up to you to bring this knowledge to your friends. You all will be strong, but you must be the strongest. You have to bear the most weight. Remember, that is not a burden. It is a privilege.) His laughter was the last thing to fade as I completely drifted off.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I woke up Thursday morning feeling the afterglow of the intense dream. I ran through it start to finish in my head, and about halfway through, I realized that it _wasn't_ a dream. The details weren't fading like they did with normal dreams. As I considered the events of the Ellimist's alternate future coupled with the aftermath of our battle yesterday, I decided to act as soon as possible. It didn't seem like something that could wait.

I checked the glowing alarm clock – 5:55 – and realized it was about twenty minutes before I normally woke up for school. I usually took forty-five minutes to get ready and was at the bus stop by ten after seven. I did some quick math and decided I had plenty of time to catch the one I wanted to talk to the most before school.

I quickly ascertained my mom had already left for work. I woke both of my sisters, telling them I was leaving early and they'd need to catch the bus themselves. Luckily, they were too tired to ask questions. I bolted the door to my room, morphed to bald eagle, and got some serious altitude heading west.

As I circled the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, I saw Cassie through the slats in the side of the barn. She was working. If I'd have been human, I'd have smiled. It was barely after the time when I'd be stepping into the shower on a normal day, and here was Cassie, showered, dressed, and making her rounds before breakfast. I swooped down and settled onto Tobias' favorite perch with the minimum amount of fuss, but I still alerted some of the patients, who in turn alerted Cassie.

She turned to me abruptly, but her facial expression didn't match her surprised movement. She actually looked like she'd been expecting me. Well, maybe not me…but someone. When she saw my bird of prey morph, she said listlessly, "Oh. Hi, Rachel."

I didn't reply, I just glided down to the straw floor and began demorphing. Even though the morphing process had never seemed to bother her, she didn't watch – she just went along feeding the patients, stopping to administer a pill or a shot every so often. I was fully demorphed and watching _her _before she gave me her attention, and even then, it wasn't much.

"Would you mind handing me that gauze?" she gestured to the medical cart behind her. I took this as a sign of truce – a casual acceptance of my presence as well as a clear statement that she wasn't looking for an argument. I did as she asked, slipping on a pair of bite-proof gloves and assisting her quietly. I knew she was waiting for me to get to the point of my visit, but honestly, I was enjoying just being with her. She was in her element, and she wasn't a controller. She was my best friend. I blocked out the hurt of the knowledge that we'd slipped apart since the beginning of the war and focused on the happiness that was our improbable friendship. That improbability had always been what made me most comfortable with our friendship, the thing that had made it the most real. There was no fakeness of convenience about it, just unadulterated camaraderie.

As she finished up with the last (and rowdiest) patient, a snake-bitten badger, she pulled off her gloves and really looked at me for the first time. The sadness in her eyes made _me _sad. "Thanks for the help, but I know you didn't fly out here first thing in the morning to help me give meds. I know why you're here. I…I was wrong, yesterday. I let it get to me. I'm sorry." She sounded like a woman getting something she'd been thinking about nonstop off of her chest. "I'll fight, you know I will. I'll fight 'till it kills me. I'm really sorry," she repeated. Before I could stop myself, I wrapped her into a tight hug. Why had it taken the Ellimist to show me how much I loved Cassie?

He was right, though – having all of the Animorphs in the fight wasn't the point. Because, as I'd known all along, they _would _fight. The Ellimist wanted us to be grateful for the opportunity. I had no idea how I was going to convey that to them – they all thought I was crazy for embracing it, as things stood. I released her from my bear hug and held her at arms' length, beaming at her. "I know. And it's okay. You know I love you, right?" I asked her, a bit more vehemently than was strictly necessary.

She didn't even bother giving me the crazy-eye. "Yeah, I know. I love you too. Doesn't make this any easier." She sighed. "You know what I did last night?" I shook my head. "I got online and researched philosophy. I wanted to get in touch with who I am as a human, and who I'm supposed to be. I must be the most hypocritical pacifist in history, because you know what quotes actually moved me? The ones from warrior cultures, like the samurai." She was digging in a dented locker as she spoke, and she came out of it with a pair of jean shorts and a hooded sweatshirt, which she handed to me. I put them on, tying a cord through the jean shorts to hold them up – the sweater covered it, anyway. She led me onto the path to her house, where I knew from experience it would just be her dad. Her mom would already be gone for work, and her dad was pretty oblivious to anything that wasn't work-related. "One samurai quote was something like 'No matter who a person is, if they haven't put their life on the line at least once for something they believe in, they should be ashamed. And if a person will stand up for something they believe in once, why not a thousand times?' Pretty relevant, even though it was written a couple thousand years ago."

"Yeah, it is. What they don't say is how terrifying and hard doing that can be," I said, and she looked at me sideways. I didn't let on that I saw. "You guys think I love it. I don't. I just appreciate it. I'd much rather have the chance to fight the Yeerks instead of being an ignorant teen going on my shallow way. That's all it is – appreciation."

As we reached the back door to my house, I could see that I'd started the wheels turning in her head. I didn't want to bash her with something the Ellimist had had to take me to a different galaxy to see, so I went into her kitchen first and greeted her dad.

"Rachel! Morning, hon," he said cheerfully, munching on a piece of toast and scanning the newspaper. "Cass, I have to jet out of here – I'm giving a presentation to animal control on rabies awareness today, and I'm running late." The nonchalant way he nibbled his toast didn't match his words. "Make sure you girls get to school on time," he said, not caring why I was there so early on a school day, as I'd known he wouldn't. Cassie handed him his car keys and halfway pulled him out of his chair. He chuckled as he spilled a last sip of juice down his shirt and hustled out of the door, still trying to read the paper.

When he was gone, Cassie gave me a look I couldn't quite figure out. "I doubt you're going to school like that," she said of my impromptu outfit. "You going home first, or what?"

I hadn't planned it, but the idea made me grin as it entered my head. "No school today," I said firmly.

She looked like she was disappointed in me, but said, "If you think that's best. I won't stop you. You want me to get your notes in chemistry?"

I kept right on grinning. "No school for _either _of us," I clarified. Before she could protest, I said, "Perspective, Cassie. We almost died yesterday. We deserve a day off. I say we Shanghai Marco and do something productive."

"School's not productive?" she asked, still looking like she disapproved, but I didn't budge. Finally, I got a smile out of her. "Okay, okay," she relented. "I suppose we could skip. The worst that can happen is that I'll get grounded forever and never see the light of day again. I'll have to sneak out and risk more punishment to help the war effort. No biggie."

"That's my girl," I boasted. "Let's catch some air." I felt a measure of pride to see that she actually looked excited to fly with me.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: **I think this is an all-time low for reviewership. 58 visitors to the last chapter, 2 reviews. Am I the only person that sounds weak to? I'll try to make the updating a bit more regular, but this review situation's not really great motivation for me to churn them out. Thanks, Lor and Iris129. This is for you. Also, TheEvilMonkey666 – this fic will be about the same length as the other two, somewhere between 22-28 chapters. Thanks for your feedback, as well!

Chapter 10

Marco, Tobias, Cassie and I flew toward the mountains in the staggered formation Tobias had taught us. I was the highest, the tip of the triangle, because that was the way bald eagles tended to travel. Tobias, to my left (my _west_, I corrected myself slyly – Tobias was always teaching us to think in compass directions when we were flying,) was barely skimming the trees at some points. Marco and Cassie were spread and staggered as well. This was a precaution – if any controllers out there were bird-watchers, we weren't going to give them a reason to be suspicious.

The only one I hadn't been able to catch before they made it to school was Jake. As he sat in first period, I sent him a thought-speech message explaining that I was taking everybody on a field trip. He wrote a note in his notebook and angled it toward the window, knowing I could read it – it said that he had two make-or-break tests and there was no way he could bail on school. So I wished him luck, and the four of us headed on without him.

Only Tobias knew where I was taking everybody, and even then, I only told him because I needed help finding it. The valley of the free Hork-bajir was the one place I could think of where it was hard to feel like we weren't making a difference. That was my only reason for going there – I figured everyone needed a pick-me-up, and that was the place we were sure to get it. The free Hork-bajir were so open, honest, and generally sweet…well, it was impossible to regret helping them, no matter the cost.

While he'd never come out and said it, Ax didn't enjoy time with the Hork-bajir. He thought of them in the same way all of his people did – that they were simple at best, stupid at worst. Inferior. The way they gathered around in the middle of their clearing and pointed at the sky as soon as we became visible, jumping with excitement, made me reconsider. Within seconds of spotting four large birds, they'd figured out who we were.

Marco pretended not to share their enthusiasm. (Ahh. I knew it. I risked eternal grounding for cutting class to hang out with a bunch of space goblins.) Even he had a hard time making it sound like a bad thing, though.

About a dozen of the Hork-bajir, including Ket Halpak and Jara Hamee, gathered around our landing zone and waited patiently for us to demorph. When Marco, Cassie, and I were fully human, Jara and Ket stepped out of the semi-circle and extended their hands toward us. "Friend Tobias comes, brings friend Rachel. Friend Marco. Friend Cassie," Jara said, clearly pleased. "Welcome to valley," he said happily, and the way he said it, it sounded like, "Welcome home."

I saw the content smiles on the faces of my friends and felt a similar one on my own. As I'd known, it was impossible to visit these guys and not feel a measure of pride. After all, they owed their freedom to us – well, us, and the Ellimist. Not that they actually owed us anything – this was one good deed that was a reward in and of itself.

"Hi, Jara, Ket," I said, gently pressing my relatively soft forehead to their horns in turn, knowing that was the way they showed closeness and greeting. They were both extremely cautious not to let the sharp point of those horns touch my skin, and they seemed enormously pleased that I made the gesture at all. Cassie did the same after I was through. Marco didn't want to get that close to their rakish horns, but he gave them another gesture, instead.

Fist in the air, he grinned maniacally at them. "Free or dead!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. All of the Hork-bajir immediately emulated the gesture and cried out, too. Tobias joined the war-cry in thought-speech.

When our greetings were out of the way, several of the Hork-bajir, including Ket Halpak, wandered toward a fire where they were obviously cooking something. Toby Hamee, their seer, waved to us but stayed by the fire to instruct them. Jara grinned his monster's smile and said, "Friends pick good day to visit Hork-bajir. Today we teach younglings _afh_." He gestured for us to follow him to the fire, and Toby picked up the explanation where her father had left off.

"_Afh _is a ceremony in which young Hork-bajir are initiated into the tribe," she told us as she stirred a small pot over the fire. "It roughly means _sharing_, but the meaning is so much deeper. _Afh_ opens a person completely, both to share with others what they are, and to receive the same from them. It is done only once per generation, and bonds the participants together for life."

Jara grunted in agreement. "Human-folk join us? You are family," he pointed out.

We all exchanged a look – how could we say no without hurting Jara's feelings? Cassie spoke for us. "I don't know, Jara. What does it involve?"

Toby answered for him. "You sip extract of _Shelva _bark and go on a journey of guided meditation. You will meet your family in the spirit world, where there are no secrets. It can take a few minutes or a few hours, but the reward is a permanent bond and a deep love. If you choose not to participate, I will make sure my father understands. There would be no danger to you should you choose to do it, though."

To my surprise, Tobias began morphing to human. (I'm going to do it,) he said. (Like Jara said, we're all family here.)

Cassie nodded. "Sure. If Toby says it's harmless, then I don't see why we shouldn't join them."

Marco gave me a sideways look. "And we already know Xena's down for whatever. I guess I'd be shunned for not doing the equivalent of dropping acid with the Hork-bajir…so why not?"

Toby nodded as if she'd already known we'd say yes. The other Hork-bajir began sitting around the fire in a circle, and Ket and Jara reserved a space for us humans in between the two of them. We all sat indian-style around the fire, and Toby began filling tiny bowls with liquid from her pot. The Hork-bajir passed them around until everyone held one, and I marveled at the bowl itself. It was woven from some sort of plant fiber, and was flexible but strong, not to mention water-tight.

Jara built up the fire until it was just on the verge of uncomfortable, and I resisted the urge to scoot backward. As the fire crackled, he spoke. "This is _Afh_. Hork-bajir do this always – make tribe strong. Learn about tribe-mates. Share. After drink, close eyes and do what Toby say." Everyone nodded their understanding of these simple instructions, including us humans. He raised his bowl, as if to toast. "Sip," he commanded, and everyone did.

I resisted the urge to spit the hot liquid out – it tasted the way chemical cleaner smelled. I forced it down, and felt it working its way toward my stomach. Almost instantly, my body felt lighter, like it was less bound by gravity than it had been five seconds ago. Jara began to hum, a low, monotone buzzing noise that seemed to amplify the effects of the weightless feeling. Suddenly, I could feel the air vibrating at the same pitch as I heard Jara's hum.

"This is _afh_," Toby said, but her voice sounded far away. "Close your eyes and follow me."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

When I closed my eyes, I could see a strange forest before me. It wasn't totally alien – the colors were a little off, but bushes were bushes, trees were trees, and so forth. A light blue mist covered the ground from about knee-level down, but was wispy enough to see the forest floor through. I realized, as I looked down, that my legs were the most abnormal part of this place. I checked the rest of my body that I could "see," and it was more like my being was made up of the vibrations I felt in the air. When I concentrated, I felt faint connections with _everything_ – the trees, the ground, everything.

Like magnetism, I felt rather than saw others joining me. One vibration-being was clearly Jara, though how I knew that, I can't say. It just _felt _like him. The connection between the two of us was much stronger than my connections with everything else, and I concentrated on it. I was overwhelmed with the flood of information of the things that made him – the important details were amplified, the insignificant details completely washed away. I felt his gratitude to me and the others, his bravery, his gentle, good nature. Along this connection, I could also feel myself channeling to him, and I felt him receive it. I wasn't consciously sending anything – the important things just flowed.

I "turned" as I felt an even stronger link of someone else, and instinctively I knew it was Tobias. As we "shared," I actually watched that already-strong bond grow more elastic and flexible, all the while gaining in power. We were like two similar electrical currents, following the same paths.

I reached out and found Cassie and Marco, and began "sharing" with them, too. I'd always thought of us Animorphs as so different from each other, but as we shared ourselves, all I could see were the similarities. We all wanted the same things, we all hurt the same way…experiences were the same, just the way we expressed them were different. It was a level of understanding that I knew I couldn't maintain, but for now, it was enough.

I shared with everyone. The Hork-bajir became a part of me, and I became a part of them. Time was meaningless. I felt like I could do this forever, and I still wouldn't know everything I needed to know about my friends, my family. Above all the information that was flowing between everyone, a general sense of peace and well-being dominated.

All too soon, I felt Tobias' link slipping away. I realized Toby must have warned him about getting close to his two hour morphing limit, and as I had that thought, reality solidified. I felt this dream-world fading, and it made me sad. I realized that my eyes were closed, so I opened them.

A few things had changed about the campfire. Toby was talking quietly, every now and then tossing some sort of powder into the fire that was mostly died down, now. Tobias was in hawk form, watching her intently. As I noticed that the Hork-bajir were holding hands, I realized that I was also holding Jara and Cassie's hands.

Slowly, the Hork-bajir and my friends seemed to wake out of their meditative state, one by one. The Hork-bajir looked at each other as if seeing each other for the first time. As I looked at my friends, I realized I kind of felt the same way – it was nothing I could put into words, but I felt a deeper understanding of them, a stronger bond. Even Marco looked slightly mesmerized, awed at how real the Hork-bajir ceremony had been.

As we watched, the Hork-bajir stood one by one and huddled up like a football team. Ket saw us watching from the outside and gestured for us to join, making room between herself and her daughter, both of them careful to keep their blades away from our bodies.

When we were all pressed together, Jara quietly spoke. "_Afh _is done. All same, now. All roots of same tree. Together, we grow strong." After this, the Hork-bajir slowly broke off into groups of two and three, talking in subdued, reverent tones.

Jara and Ket held hands and faced us, the Animorphs. "Thank you," they both said. Jara smiled and said, "We are glad you come to valley today. Happy to share with human-folk. Human _family_, now." Then the two of them left, to be alone with each other, I guess.

"Wow," Cassie said, and it was the same way I felt. Now that it was over, I'd lost that feeling of a mystical oneness with everyone, but I could still remember it. It was still powerful, even just as a memory.

(That was…something,) Tobias said, and even in thought-speech, I could hear the awed tone.

"You said it," Marco whispered, still staring at the fire. "Man, that was so _real_."

I felt another connection, this one far less mystical and far more logical than those of the _afh_. Had I done what the Ellimist thought I should? I thought so. It couldn't be a coincidence that he was responsible both for the valley of the free Hork-bajir and my revelation. I thought maybe this connection we'd had with each other, however brief, would bring us together in the way we needed.

Cassie sighed. "Well, I guess we know what comes next." We all looked at her, slightly confused. "I think we need to find Jake. I know _I_ need to apologize to him. I want to let him know that I appreciate him."

Marco nodded. "Lately, I've been getting the feeling that Jake's been using me – been using all of us. After this, I kind of see it's the other way around. I've been using _him_, taking his leadership for granted, you know?"

As they spoke, I felt reassured that this was the Ellimist's plan all along. So it sort of surprised me when Tobias mentioned it. (So, I guess it's not just me the Ellimist turns to when he needs something done, huh Rachel?)

Before I could reply, Marco gave me an abashed grin. "Yeah. I got that off of you, too. I saw what the Ellimist showed you in my other future, and how you felt about it. That's crazy. I don't know how much of it was a magic trick, but I didn't like it. This is better," he said, gesturing to the Hork-bajir valley, and I knew he was talking about our lives in general.

"Yeah," I said in agreement, "that sucked. But if it brings us closer together, then it was worth it."

"And that's as introspective as I care for you to get," Marco told me humorously. "Keep talking like that, and I'm going to feel like _this _is an alternate future. Come on, let's go see Jake."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

After we left the valley to find Jake, he actually found us.

It was after the time school normally let out, and we were leisurely floating high on the thermals, keeping an eye out for Jake. But we were looking on the roads in between his house and the school, not in the air. (Guys, is that you?) I heard him call in thought-speech.

(Nope, just some other squadron of birds,) Marco replied. (Hey, what are you doing morphed? I thought-)

(No time, Marco,) Jake cut him off, sounding as close to panic as I'd ever heard him. (We have big, big problems. Erek caught up to me during last period, and told me something I'd really rather not have heard.) We followed him to Ax's scoop. (Ax! Be there, be there,) he chanted as we crossed into maximum thought-speech range. (Ax!)

Finally we found him, galloping through a small field not far from his scoop. At Jake's command, we all demorphed. He began explaining before we were fully human again.

"Visser Three is royally ticked about the bug fighter plant we smashed. His people have come up with a plan to make sure it doesn't happen again. Up in the mountains, there's a hidden base. A hidden _American _base. It's supposed to be a rathole for generals or whatever to retreat to in case of a nuclear war. The Yeerks have already snuck into this empty command center undetected, which is bad enough. But Erek says that once they upload their software, they'll have control over everything the base was meant to control, without anyone in our government knowing about it."

Marco narrowed his eyes. "And just what does this base control?"

"Mainly, Cold War spy satellites. Infrared cameras that can zoom in close enough to see a pimple on your…well, they can zoom in close. _And _see through treetop canopies," he emphasized.

"Not good," I said. "We can't let them have a bunch of spy satellites pointed at our forest, even if Ax wasn't hiding out there."

Jake gave me a _no duh_ look and continued. "This base also has weapons. Low-yield nuclear warheads with more than enough range to hit our forest."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Marco said, putting one hand up and pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. "We don't have to worry about that. They start firing off nukes, even little ones, people are gonna get suspicious that something might be going on. Not to mention the fact that we know their Pool ship can hit a target from orbit. The secrecy thing – they could just locate us 'Andalites' with the satellites and send in a hit squad of Hork-bajir."

Jake grimaced. "Actually, they seem to think they can get the kind of destruction they want while staying a secret, and their plan _relies _on those nukes. Anything you suggested, from Hork-bajir to Dracon fire, carries the risk of exposure for them. Once they find out that at least one of us is in the forest, they plan to launch a nuke or two at us. By remote. When the army swarms the base, they won't find anything but a malfunctioning human computer that launched a missile or two by mistake. That way, even if we manage to escape alive, we won't have a hiding place to go back to."

(This is extreme,) Tobias said. (This is so extreme, even for the Yeerks. I'm having a really hard time believing they'd go this far just to get a few Andalite bandits.)

"I'm just repeating what Erek told me. This is his intelligence. And if you could have seen how freaked out about it he was, you wouldn't doubt it." Jake looked down into the dirt. "I made a mistake. It was a bad call to go after the bug fighter factory. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. I drove Visser Three to this, and now it's up to me to stop it. I know how all of you feel, and I'm not asking anyone to come along."

We all sort of looked at each other – none of us had expected to have to put our newfound bond to the test so soon. "We're in," Cassie said, speaking for all of us. "You – we – did what we had to do with the factory. You were right all along. The big question is, how do we stop them this time?"

Jake looked surprised, but he didn't stay flat-footed. "We don't have to go in without a plan," he promised. "Erek says that if we can set off any of the sensors the Yeerks disabled, the army will hit that silo like white on rice. All we have to do is alert the government that _somebody's _there."

"That sounds suspiciously like good news," Marco said. "And that means that there's a big old hunk of bad news coming our way."

Jake grinned. "Yeah, that _is _the good news. The bad news is that they're ready for us. They know we've got people on the inside of their operation, and they're not taking any chances. We've never seen the type of firepower they've got in place right now."

"If all we have to do is set off an alarm, we don't have to fight them, do we?" I asked. I ignored Marco as he fell on the ground in fake shock. "I mean, they can stack the place with as many controllers as they want right now. We know that when they're ready to do the deed, there's going to be a minimum of Yeerk personnel there. They have to be long gone by the time those missiles leave the base."

"Time is the second part of the bad news," Jake clarified. "Because, in six hours, they'll have full control of the base. Erek thinks that even if we abandon the forest, the Yeerks will destroy it anyway, because they're fairly sure that's where we're hiding. So we have six hours, give or take, to alert the military that one of their bases has been infiltrated. We have six hours to sneak or fight our way by a buttload of Yeerks and figure this thing out."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Marco, being Marco, looked at Jake deadpan and said, "So, I _do _have time to run home and put on deodorant, or I don't?"

Jake grinned, but other than that ignored him. "Time to make a plan. Ax?"

Ax had a bunch of questions about the security of the facility, few of which we could answer beyond guesswork. (If this building is meant to shield inhabitants from radiation, it would probably have seal integrity alarms. If so, all we would have to do is compromise one or more of these airtight seals.)

"Ventilate a military base?" I asked. "Sounds like fun."

Jake frowned. "The only thing that sounds crazier than attacking the Yeerk forces there is attacking a building meant to withstand a nuclear holocaust. Couldn't we just fake an air leak or something?"

Ax shrugged, a gesture he'd definitely picked up during his time on Earth. (I don't know. I would say no, but I would have also said that Yeerks would not be able to take complete control of an important military position undetected. Human security doesn't make much sense.)

"Yeah…how _did _they pull that off?" Marco wondered. "You gotta think there's motion detectors and stuff like that. If they're hacking the computers from the inside, how'd they get around the defenses?"

"Maybe they were able to get legitimate access," Cassie suggested. "You know, made a controller out of a general, or someone who could get them in."

"It's all about access!" Marco yelled, as if he'd just solved a puzzle. "We don't even have to go there – the government would have everything in that bunker accessible from the Department of Defense network, I'd bet my CD collection on it. Because they'd still want a way to launch those missiles, even if they couldn't physically get there, right?"

(What exactly are you suggesting?) Tobias asked.

"I'm saying that Ax has internet access at his scoop. We already hacked the CIA database that one time, and it only took twenty minutes." He suddenly looked around as if he'd said too much, and Jake groaned, shaking his head.

"_Why _would you do that, Marco? Why?" he asked, sounding stressed.

"It's not that big of a deal – Ax was in and out before they knew it," Marco said defensively. "It was no big deal," he repeated.

(Marco wanted to know if a place called the Bermuda Triangle was a government cover-up of extraterrestrial activity. It is not,) Ax said helpfully.

Marco glared at him. "Traitor," he muttered.

"I'm not even going to get into it with you right now, but we're going to have a talk later," Jake said in a vaguely threatening manner. "For now, though, how does you talking Ax into hacking government computers help us?"

"Any number of ways, dude," Marco said, and his enthusiasm was catching. "We could hack the Department of Defense and set off the alarms in the bunker from the comfort of home. Or, if the Yeerks have thought of that and blocked us out somehow, we could go right to the source. Get the attention of the FBI by hacking the head of the cybercrime division's personal computer, and tell them that we have control of the bunker. That would get them out there in a hurry," he said, chuckling and rubbing his hands together.

I looked at Ax. "Could you do that? For sure, I mean. And if so, how long would it take?"

(If this FBI uses the same encryption algorithms as the CIA, minutes. If they have different security in place…well, I don't know. I can hack any human security for certain. What I cannot do is give you an accurate timetable.)

I could see the gears grinding away in Jake's head. "Okay. We try it Marco's way, but we're going to have an insurance policy. And that means doing something I really don't like – splitting into two teams. Marco and Ax will try the computer thing. Rachel, you're with them. The rest of us will go to the site, and set off some alarms if it looks like we need to," he said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Why do I go with them?" I asked, confused. It seemed to me like I'd be more use in the place where a fight was possible. So what Jake said surprised me pretty good.

"Because I'm leading the first team. Somebody needs to lead the second team, make the calls if it comes down to a tough decision. That's you," he said confidently, leaving me no room to question his judgment. "And the clock is ticking, so let's get to it. If a black helicopter squad isn't swarming the base five hours from now, me, Cassie, and Tobias will hit it and set off those alarms manually. If that's what it comes down to, I'll expect you guys to come get us out." What he didn't say was that the base was over an hour away, and an hour was a very long time in which some very bad things could happen.

They began morphing, and even though I knew we were under a time crunch, I couldn't help standing there until they were in the air and flying away. I thought about my cousin, my best friend, and Tobias fighting, totally outnumbered, with me an hour away. Without looking away from them, I said, "You guys had better be able to pull this off, Marco. You had just better."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Are you sure you can't sneak in, somehow?" Marco asked. He didn't sound upset, just curious. "I mean, you're sure you've got full access and it's the Yeerks blocking us?"

Ax turned both of his stalk eyes to give Marco a look I'd come to interpret as "please, don't waste my time." (Of course I'm sure. The Yeerks have effectively severed the connection between the base and the Department of Defense network. What now?)

I could tell Marco was a little stung that Jake had chosen me to lead our team, but he still looked to me before answering. "I recommend we do what I said earlier – hack the FBI's cybercrime division. That'll get their attention – it's the most secure network in the world. Once we have their attention, we boast that we're terrorists and we've taken control of the fallout shelter. They'll lose it over there, and they'll mobilize on the site with full force."

I nodded. "It sounds like a good idea. Do it, Ax."

Ax got to work, his fingers flying over two different keyboards. He was quiet as he worked, except to mutter about not having a direct neuro-uplink every so often, whatever that is. As he hacked, Marco and I talked quietly.

"Do you think he'll be able to do it in time?" I asked, trying not to sound nervous.

Marco looked over Ax's shoulder, where both monitors displayed nothing but strings of numbers, obviously some sort of code. "I do. You should have _seen _him with the CIA network. He got in, and when they detected him, he made them think we were hacking them from Russia. The boy's gifted with computers."

After forty-five tense minutes, Ax finally called Marco to his side. (I am in. I have full access in the cybercrime division. What would you like me to do?)

Marco thought for a minute. "First, can you pirate their audio? Hijack their microphones?"

Ax's fingers typed away for a minute, and all of a sudden, the speakers around his scoop popped and crackled. We heard several different people talking in low, professional tones. I had no idea what they were saying – it was computer-speak, and it was like listening to another language.

"Nice," Marco said. "Now we'll be able to hear how they react. Put me through to their monitors – text only. I don't want to give them a voice sample so they can arrest me later; prime the monitors to receive text." Ax pecked the keyboards again, then handed Marco one of them.

(Press Tab, backspace, and right shift when you are ready to send your message,) Ax said. Marco looked at me again, and I nodded. He took a deep breath, then pressed the combination of keys that would let him talk to the FBI.

Immediately, we heard excited chatter going on over the speakers. People asking what was going on, if they'd had a system failure. One guy caught on quick. "This is an external breach, we're being hacked!"

"What monitors will my text show up on?" Marco asked Ax.

(All of them,) he replied nonchalantly, and Marco grinned. Ax configured one of his own monitors to show what the FBI was seeing.

[begintext: hello, fbi. my name is mr. fantastic. pay very close attention: endtext]

The excited chatter on the FBI's end stopped. It was all quiet, and I guessed they'd never seen anything like this. Marco laughed and started typing again.

[begintext: if you are worried that this is a terrorist breach…well, you are correct. we have control of one of your emergency bases. we also have control of your cybercrime network, as you can see. in two hours, we will attack this country using its own nuclear weapons. find us if you can: endtext]

"Marco, the whole point is for them to get there quickly. How is sending them on a wild goose chase going to accomplish that?" I asked.

"It has to be realistic," he said. "Real terrorists wouldn't tell them where they were. Don't worry, they'll figure it out by reaching out to all their bases. The one that can't be accessed will be the one they hit, it's a dead giveaway. Don't worry so much."

Ax studied the second monitor and said, (He is right, Rachel. Already, they've determined that they've lost contact with the base in the mountains.)

Marco grinned. "See? They'll mount up and be there in no time." He started typing again.

"What are you doing, Marco? You did what you needed to do – quit it," I told him, exasperated.

"One more thing," he said, smiling even wider.

[begintext: i am the ghost in the machine. i am the phantom of the internet. i cannot be traced or stopped. you will all-#$%error100101110]

As I saw his message get all screwy, a high-pitched beeping started emanating from somewhere in the scoop. That was worrying. Even more worrying was what the voice said over the speakers. "Sir, we've got a location. The hack is originating from here." I pictured the guy pointing out our location on a map.

Marco's eyes went big. "Busted big time. Ax, what can you do about this?"

(Already on it,) Ax said, and he was. He snatched the second keyboard away from Marco and typed away even more furiously than before.

"Do they know where we are?" I asked anxiously. "Can you make them think we're somewhere else?"

What Ax said froze my blood. (Yes, they know exactly where we are. I am trying to throw them off, but I don't know if it will work. If it doesn't, we are in trouble.)

"_Big_ trouble," Marco said, subdued. "_Really _big trouble."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Yeah, right, Ruzonni," the official-sounding voice came back over the speakers as Ax hacked frantically. "You're telling me the most professional and advanced hack we've ever experienced is coming from the middle of the forest?"

Agent Ruzonni's reply didn't sound very confident. "That's what it says, sir. Although now it's also saying there's a rising probability of the hack coming from Rio de Janeiro." After a slight pause, he said, "Now it's saying Hong Kong. And now we're reading the hack as originating from one of our communications satellites, twelve miles in orbit."

"He's playing with us," the agent-in-charge's voice sounded incredulous. The next thing he said was a challenge to his people. "Can any of you 'professionals' find this clown? Or were you recruited to dust the keyboards?"

(I believe I can redirect them, now,) Ax said calmly, as if we hadn't been seconds away from discovery. (I will attempt to hasten their response time.)

After a few seconds, Ruzonni's voice came back over the speakers. "Sir! I've got them locked down to 94.4% - their computer guy is using an IP randomizer, but they're hitting us from here."

"That's Nuclear Tactical Eight, the same silo we lost contact with," the boss said, sounding worried. "They were telling the truth – they have control of a military facility, which means that they _will _have control of nuclear weapons. Start every available chopper and mobilize the response teams," he ordered. "I'll lead them myself."

"Which response teams, sir?" Ruzzoni asked.

"All of them," the boss said, and the only noise after that was footsteps scrambling out of the room.

"Nice," I said appreciatively. "Even with Marco trying to sabotage you, good work, Ax."

Marco shot me a sideways look. "Very funny." He got quiet and thoughtful, not very Marco-like at all, so I sighed and asked him what he had in mind. He shook his head, obviously bothered by something. "I just don't like the thought of those guys rolling into an ambush they're not ready for," he said.

"They're a lot more ready than three teenagers that can turn into animals," I pointed out. "They know there's bad guys, and they have helicopters. Not to mention lots and lots of guns."

Marco shrugged, but didn't look convinced. "They're ready for Earth terrorists. Not Hork-bajir, Taxxons with Dracon beams, and Visser Three's morphs from Planet Hell."

I sighed again – he was right. "Ax, is there any way we can maybe let them know they're in for a bad fight? Without giving ourselves away, I mean."

Ax looked confused, but handed the keyboard to Marco when he asked for it. Marco started typing again.

[begintext: is that you, agent ruzzoni? i will only talk to you: endtext]

It didn't take but a second for a response, but it didn't come over the monitor, the way we expected – it came from the speakers. "Yeah, it's Ruzzoni, and I'm alone. What do you want?" Marco was too stunned to respond, and Ruzzoni laughed humorlessly. "The only way you'd know my name was if you were listening. I thought I saw some corrupted code in the audio system. Can you hear me or not?"

Marco shrugged and started typing. [begintext: of course i hear you. i hear everything. I can - ]

"Stop with the almighty hacker crap already," Ruzzoni sounded disgusted. "What do you want? You have thirty seconds before I track down your audio hack and kill it."

[ - to the point. okay. your friends are heading to the right location, but they are not ready for what they will find. lots of bad guys with extremely sophisticated weaponry. warn them at all costs, ruzzoni. their lives depend on it: endtext]

We could hear fingers flying over a keyboard on the other end, and Ax said, (Someone is opening communication with the attack teams on their way to the facility.) Marco gave him a thumbs-up and waited.

"Okay, they're warned. I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but I hope your people know what they're doing – mine sure do."

[begintext: i am a friend. you won't believe me and i don't care. you will see the truth, soon enough: endtext]

After a moment, Ruzzoni's voice returned, but a lot of the skepticism was gone. "Our communications are private right now. Just answer yes or no – are you saying this has something to do with AC-1?"

I saw Ax frantically search "AC-1," and after a moment, he shrugged – he couldn't find anything on it. Marco replied. [begintext: i have a feeling it might, although i am not familiar with designation ac-1. the force your teams will encounter will be something new to them, something dangerous. that is all i can say: endtext]

"AC-1, then," Ruzzoni sounded convinced, even though Marco hadn't confirmed anything. "You can't trust anybody. Neither can I, for that matter. I'm a better hacker than you think," he said, sounding rushed and paranoid. "I'll be in touch, if this is AC-1 after all. Ruzzoni out." The speakers popped with squelch, and we all groaned and plugged our ears until Ax killed it.

"That was weird," I said. "It was almost like he knew what we were talking about without us telling him. Shady." I was a little creeped out, especially with Ruzzoni sounding so confident he'd be able to contact us again, but mostly I was just glad the FBI was on their way full-force to do their job, so my friends would be able to stay safe.

(I will continue to search records for mention of this file "AC-1." It may be important, or it may be a piece of FBI counter-intelligence. It will give me something to do for the next few days, anyway,) Ax said indifferently. I almost laughed – this blue alien was slightly enthusiastic that the most secure networks and files on the planet would be enough to keep him busy for a couple of days.

"You do that, Ax-man," Marco said, still distracted. "I have a feeling it's important." He seemed to visibly shake it off, then gave me a grin. "So, our work here is done. Should we fly out to meet up with Jake and the others to watch the fireworks?"

Enthusiasm jolted me, and I gave the order. "Oh, yeah. Most definitely. Let's get feathers and haul."


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: **Thank you alj97, chlorinehamster, Greader, and Jamie0 for your reviews. Out of the 38 signed in readers for the last chapter, you were the only ones to review – wish there was some sort of rating system on ffn to reward good readers and block A-hole readers. *Sigh* maybe one day. Anyway, enjoy.

Chapter 16

(What's up, guys?) Jake called as Marco, Ax, and I approached the hidden mountain base. He sounded tired, and I realized that they'd have already had to de-morph and re-morph once.

(Are they here?) I asked of the FBI, ignoring the pleasantries.

(If you're talking about the black helicopter squad, then yeah, they got here twenty minutes ago,) Jake said, and I noticed the crowded chopper pad below. (Now, as to if they're going to _do _anything about the Yeerks…well, I don't know.)

(What do you mean?) Marco demanded. (We were even able to give those guys a heads-up that they were walking into a trap! They should have hit that base rock-n-roll style, guns blazing!)

I could picture Jake shrugging in my mind. (I mean, that didn't happen. They landed, about fifty guys in FBI flak jackets. One of the human controllers talked to the leader of the response team, and they all went into the base. Like I said, this was about twenty minutes ago. Haven't seen or heard a peep since.)

(Well, that's just fantastic!) I fumed. (We tell those idiots to be careful, and what do they do? Walk into the trap willingly so the Yeerks can take control of the entire FBI cybercrime division. Unbelievable!)

I barely listened as Marco and Ax filled the others in on what happened back at Ax's scoop. It was obvious to me that we were going to have to go in and save the FBI's butt, not to mention stop the Yeerks ourselves. I tuned back in just in time to hear Jake putting it to a vote.

(This isn't just a vote of whether we go in or not,) he warned. (We're also going to vote on how. Stealthy, to get some information? Or do we rage in full battle morphs and try to shut the Yeerks down? Keep in mind we've only got maybe two hours left before they have control of the missiles.)

(We go in hard,) I said instantly. (We don't have time to skulk around and make absolutely sure the Yeerks are being cute. We have to assume the FBI agents are dead or controllers and it's up to us.)

(Hard,) Tobias backed me up. (If we had more time…but we don't. We have to do it ourselves.)

(We have time,) Marco argued. (Quick bug morph, check things out…it'll leave us with over an hour to TCB.)

(TCB?) Ax wondered.

I could see Marco grinning even in osprey morph. (Take Care of Business, baby. Bachman-Turner Overdrive – one of the decent bands our neighbors to the north spawned. Takin' care of business…EVERYDAY!) he sang horribly, and we all groaned.

(Well, we definitely don't have time for _that_,) Cassie halfway joked of Marco's singing, (but I agree that we have just enough time to learn what we're getting into before we jump in head-first.)

(Ax?) Jake asked, although we pretty much knew what his answer would be.

(I vote with Prince Jake,) he said almost indifferently.

(So I guess I've got the tiebreaker,) Jake said exasperatedly. He thought for a long minute. (Well, I guess I have to look at what's on the table. Risk the FBI's cybercrime division and our own forest in order to play it safe? Nah, we can't do that. We're going in hot, people.)

I resisted the urge to cheer as Jake continued. (Everybody's inside, and I don't _see_ any external surveillance, but that doesn't mean there isn't any. We'll go down to the helipad quickly and use the FBI choppers as cover to de-morph and get dangerous. Ax, you'll stay yourself and protect us while we do battle morphs. Once we're ready, we hit that base hard and fast and we don't stop until we get Ax's say-so that he's personally locked the Yeerks out of the computer systems.)

(Jake…) Tobias said, sounding worried. (That could take hours. There is no way we can hold off what the Yeerks are packing that long.)

(I didn't say it would be safe or easy,) Jake replied as he started his decent toward the helicopter pad. (It's going to be hell in there. I just pray that they haven't started infesting the FBI agents, yet. Maybe, just maybe, they'll catch on that we're the good guys, and they'll be able to make it confusing. But, like I said, Mission Priority One is to get Ax to a computer terminal and keep the Yeerks off his butt while he works. Everybody clear?) he asked as he landed and immediately started his demorph. Everybody followed his lead and answered in the affirmative.

(Cassie, be strong. We got this,) I privately encouraged her. Her reply sounded pretty stable, and that gave me some confidence. (Tobias? You ready?) I privately asked him.

(I am _always _ready to trash the Yeerks,) Tobias said confidently, and my mind briefly flashed back to the mob-boss version of Tobias the Ellimist had introduced me to. If I'd have been human, I'd have smiled.

When my grizzly morph was complete, I looked around with the bear's near-sighted vision. I was unsurprised to see my friends in their various battle morphs, but there was one thing different than the usual scene, and I almost started laughing hysterically. While we'd been morphing, apparently Ax had rummaged through one or more of the FBI choppers. He stood ready, a human assault rifle held awkwardly in each hand. (I believe I can operate these human weapons. It may give us an advantage,) he said, a little self-consciously.

Marco _did _laugh hysterically. (You look like the Andalite Rambo! The Blue Centaur version of John McClain! Haha!)

(Shut up,) I told Marco, and turned to Ax. (Looks good on you, Ax-man,) I told him, and he haughtily shouldered one of the rifles in apparent defiance to Marco's teasing.

(All right, then,) Jake said with a trace of amusement. (We ready?) Everybody said yes, with varying degrees of false confidence. (Let's get to it, then!) We broke cover and charged the open door of the nuclear silo, none of us knowing what to expect once we got inside.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Before we even got to the open blast doors of the fallout shelter, Jake was hollering. (They're still in the entrance area, arguing with the Yeerks,) Jake said. He sounded like he couldn't quite believe it. (You guys told them terrorists were inside, and they were going to launch nukes at American citizens, and they're standing there arguing?)

(Like I said, legit access,) Cassie noted. (The Yeerks could have a general there that outranks everybody.)

Tobias, thoughtful as always, knew my grizzly morph was shortsighted, so he called out the information I needed. (First we're going to run into the FBI. Try to pick out the black bulletproof vests with "FBI" in bold yellow, and ignore them. The Yeerks are all in army camo – they should be harder for you to see, but they're your targets.)

I heard them before I saw any of them, and that actually made it easier to tell who was a controller and who was a true blue human. "What the _hell _is that thing, and where did it get AR-15s?" one guy yelled. Another one sounded a lot more sure of himself – "Andalite! Andalite bandits – kill that scum!"

I was now close enough to see the group, and thanks to Tobias, I _could _tell the difference between friend and foe. The FBI agents, all brave men in their own rights, I'm sure, were scattering like roaches at the sight of us charging in. The Siberian tiger and grizzly bear in the front of the charge had a lot to do with their reaction, I'm sure, but the sight of Ax galloping right behind, wildly wielding two assault rifles, was probably a bit too much for the high-strung soldiers. The Yeerks in army uniforms were orienting themselves toward us, bringing their guns to bear, but they were a little too slow. Before they could get off more than a couple of potshots, Jake, Cassie and I were on them.

I roared for the sheer intimidation factor as I used both of my paws and all of my upper-body strength to shove one controller into two others, violently. I spun and swiped horizontally blindly, and got lucky as another controller went down. My vision took on the red tint it sometimes did in the middle of battle, and I was on automatic – spinning, crushing, clawing, biting. I was brought out of it by Marco, of all people.

(Rachel! Rachel, that's enough! They're running!) he yelled, repeating himself several times until he got through. Once he was fairly sure he had my attention, he continued, urging me to focus. (This isn't what we're here for – Ax, Jake and Cassie are already inside, looking for a computer. There's bound to be a bunch more controllers inside, so save it. We've got a job to do – we've got to keep the Yeerks off of Ax. Come on, Rachel.)

(Yeah, I'm good,) I said impatiently, now that I'd been reminded of our primary mission. (Lead the way, let's get to them!)

I followed the ambling gorilla into the facility, where things were a nightmare. I guess the FBI agents had decided the Yeerks _were _the bad guys, after all, because they were shooting at them from behind cover. The Yeerks were shooting back, and Marco and I were in the middle of it. We tried to hustle – something told me that nobody would be sad if they shot one of us as they shot at their adversaries.

(Rachel! Marco!) Tobias called. (Go right as soon as you see the doorway! We're in this little side room.) As we found the room and jammed ourselves in, Tobias continued. (I don't think they know we're in here, and when they figure it out, they're only going to be able to bring two at a time to try to get us. We can handle them indefinitely.)

(Until it's time to leave…then we're screwed,) Marco added cheerfully.

Jake was ignoring us. (Ax?) he asked timidly, needing an update but not wanting to break the Andalite's concentration. Ax had taken over two computers at once and was working hard. (How's it look?)

Ax spared Jake a glance with one stalk eye. (These terminals have the access I need. A lockout of Yeerk – _any _- forces should take anywhere from three to twenty Earth minutes.) Then he was back to business.

Jake though-sighed. (Twenty minutes…jeez. All right, we'll hope for three and be ready for twenty.) He stopped and did a visual assessment of our little group. I guess everyone looked all right to him, because he didn't recommend a strategic re-morph, as he'd been more and more prone to do as we grew accustomed to our strange powers. (Rachel, post up beside the door. If anybody pokes their head in, take it off.) I felt a rush of pride for my cousin – he was so comfortable with giving tough orders, now. He sounded like some sort of action hero half the time, and he did it without trying, which made it real.

Marco was fiddling with one of Ax's rifles. (You know, if my finger weren't way too fat for the trigger guard, I could actually use this thing,) he mused. He sounded like he was just making conversation, but Tobias took it way more literally.

(Ax?) he said tightly, getting Ax's attention. (We need you a second. Take a break and take off that piece of metal protecting the trigger on that rifle.)

Marco scoffed. (Yeah right. That's solid steel. And to hit it in just the perfect place with enough force to break it…)

(Hold it toward me, please,) Ax said tensely, wanting to get back to work. Marco extended the gun, holding it by the end of the barrel, as far away from Ax's tail as he could get. Without measuring, Ax flung his tail twice, and it was so fast it looked like one single swing. I heard _ping! ping! _in rapid succession, then Ax was back to the computers. Marco held it up in wonder – Ax had cleanly trimmed the trigger guard off. He aimed carefully away from us and sighted the gun, and the look was almost comical – a gorilla that looked like he was hunting with a rifle.

(Guys, I can shoot this thing,) he said in wonder. (This gun is now gorilla-friendly.)

Jake actually sounded uncomfortable. (Good. Be ready to use it if Rachel misses, then.)

(Prince Jake!) Ax called, sounding very upset. (Someone is interfering with my access. An _external _source. I'm sure he couldn't stop me, but he is slowing me down significantly.)

Jake thought that over. (How significantly?)

Ax sounded grim. (Instead of five minutes, it's more likely to take an hour.) He was interrupted by the sounds of automatic gunfire, much closer to our location, now. (An hour, minimum. Perhaps we should retreat while we can.)

I don't think the others even understood the significance of that suggestion. Andalite's don't surrender if there is any chance of victory, no matter how small. They just don't do it. Ax suggesting a retreat was as if he said out loud, (All right, we're done. If we don't leave, we won't stop the nukes and we'll die.)

From the weight of his words, Jake _did _understand what Ax was saying, he just knew we had to persevere anyway. (I have faith in you, Ax. We _have _to stop this. We _have _to take a stand, to let the Yeerks know that they _do _have limits. We have to win this one.)

(Yes, Prince Jake,) Ax agreed, and he sounded much happier than when he was suggesting a retreat. Like I said, Andalites are too brave for their own good, sometimes.

"Andalites!" called a controller from maybe twenty-five feet beyond our doorway. "Come out of there and demorph, and we'll let you live. You only get this offer once!"

Marco waved me to the side, and I cleared the doorway. He let out a five-round burst of rifle fire fly through the door, and we heard controllers diving for cover. (Now they have something to think about,) Marco said. (It's just a matter of them thinking it through and then coming anyway.)

(Let's be preemptive,) Tobias suggested. (One of us stays to watch Ax's back, the rest of us go out on the offensive.)

(I like it,) Jake said instantly. (Staying behind is likely to be the hardest job, once they know we're in here and we're a threat. Rachel? Can you handle it?)

I knew Jake was playing to my preferences, knowing I wanted to be where I was needed most and I'd see the most action, but I didn't care. Watching Ax's back _was_ vital, and I was up to it. (I can do it. You guys give 'em hell,) I said.

(You heard her,) Jake said. (Marco, empty that clip through the door, make sure they've got their heads down. As soon as that gun is empty, we charge. Don't stop, hit everyone that's standing. This is to give Ax the chance he needs, people. Let's rock.) Marco started shooting the rifle, and my friends got ready to throw themselves into the fire.


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: **Here we go again…I was afraid of this when I slowed down the updating a little. Just posted chapter 17, and it's getting great hit traffic…already 9 signed in readers in the past hour. No reviews. All you people with this story on your alert list that haven't left a review, you're going to be the death of this fic. It's so easy to leave a little review, especially when you're already signed in. Do it, be a decent person. If you take the time and you _are _decent, then thank you and enjoy the new content!

Chapter 18

_Clickclickclick. _Marco's rifle was out of bullets and now it was dry-firing. Jake didn't waste a second. (Now! Me and Cassie left, Marco and Tobias right!) Four very different battle cries rang out as my friends charged into the main room and out of sight. I heard gunfire, but everyone's thought speech seemed to be under control.

(Can I do anything to help?) I asked Ax. I was the only one not doing anything, and that was unusual. _Unnatural. _(Anything?)

(Actually, the person who is interfering with my access is trying to speak to me, but I don't have time to talk, even if I understood what he was saying.) He powered up a spare monitor and pointed it at me. (Keep an eye for a hint that can help me block him out, please.)

(Sure thing,) I said distractedly, leaning in to peer at the screen. The bear I was sharing head space with could have cared less – he wanted to find out what all the noise in the next room was about, not to mention check out the slaughterhouse-esque stink of blood pouring from that room. I forced the eyes to focus, and slowly, came to understand what I was looking at. It read just like a chat log.

-AGT221- Is this mr. fantasic?

-AGT221- it has to be. mr. fantastic, it's ruzz. i see you're looking for the missile control codes. can help you crack file.

-AGT221- stop. i'm trying to help. stop your countermeasures, fantastic.

-AGT221- fine, you do it. giving you access. but trust me, take my help. let me know.

(Hey Ax,) I said as I read the last line. (Did it just get easier for you?)

(Yes,) he replied. (Strange – it's as if the other hacker gave up.)

(He did,) I told him. (It's Ruzzoni, and he's trying to help you.)

Ax instantly swiveled my screen to him. (How do I ask him to take the back half of the code?)

(Uh, now you're speaking Andalite to me. I guess just ask him to take the back half of the code,) I said, just as lost by the techno-speak as I would have been by a language barrier.

(Okay!) Ax said, getting back to work with vigor. (We're back to looking at two minutes, tops,) he told me.

(Jake!) I called instantly. (Ax says two minutes! Can you hold off?)

(ARGH!) was the yelled reply from my cousin. (Maybe! We had the human-controllers on the run, then about a dozen Hork-bajir hit the room.)

(Speaking of Hork-bajir, three of them heading your way,) Cassie shot to me and Ax.

(Rachel, I need you!) Ax said just as frantically as he worked. (I cannot spare so much as a stalk eye. I need you to take them by yourself!)

(Thanks for the early Christmas present,) I told him easily. (You just lock them out of those missiles – I _got _this.) The first Hork-bajir stuck his snake-like head into the room, and I instinctively punch-poked – the Hork-bajir bellowed and clutched his eye, falling back. I filled the doorway to block Ax from potential danger, but the move put me directly in the path of two ticked-off Hork-bajir.

They both attacked simultaneously, and there was no way to defend. I did the only thing I could – I attacked at the same time, hitting the one on my right with a vicious downward swipe. He crumpled as his wrist blade sliced my arm. The second Hork-bajir, undefended, jabbed his own wrist blade deep into my side. Before I could react, he had twisted it violently and pulled it out.

Instinct told me to roll over and protect the wound, and that's when I realized how bad it was. The grizzly's instincts only told it to roll over in a very small handful of situations – being mortally wounded was at the top of the list. I ignored the bear and tried to repeat the swipe I'd just landed on his partner, but this Yeerk was ready – he dodged and threw another stab, this one much less deep but just as painful, into my stomach area.

HRROAR! I allowed the grizzly to blow off steam, then charged him. I was not conscious of the blades he thrust my way – my only mission was to put him down, for good. I accomplished that mission, but my injuries were bad. I closed my eyes to demorph, but promptly forgot what I was doing – my mind was trying to shut down.

(Rachel!) The next thing I knew was a slight stinging sensation in my left arm, the only one left unlacerated. (Rachel, _please_! Demorph! You're dying!)

After a moment, I realized it was Cassie's voice. I slitted my eyes open and saw a large timber wolf tugging roughly at my wrist. (Okay, okay!) I told her, summoning all my strength and concentration and beginning the demorph. (Stop using me as a chew toy.)

When I was about halfway human, enough blood had returned to my brain, and it had me thinking clearly. While I still had thought-speech, I asked Cassie the question. (How much time do I have to take cover once I'm fully human?)

(You'll be okay, just be ready to morph again. Ax is done, and we're getting out of here. Jake and the others can handle distracting the Yeerks until you're ready to go.)

The thought of immediately morphing again made me feel ancient and tired, but as soon as the transformation to human stopped, I focused on my elephant morph. I heard very sporadic gunfire and the occasional animal roar, but it sounded as if the fighting was winding down in a big way.

I was almost fully elephant. (Jake, you guys ready to get out of here?) I asked him.

(As soon as you're done,) he responded right away. (Let us know when you're on the way out.)

I tested my elephant parts – the morph was finished. (On the way out,) I repeated. (Let's bail.)


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

There were only a few controllers left in between my friends and the exit, and only a couple of them were dumb enough to try to stand in our way. As we got wings and flew away from the scene of the battle, Marco noted that half of the FBI choppers that were there when we arrived we gone before we left. No one could agree on what it meant, and we were all too tired to argue about it as we went to Cassie's barn to "debrief." I'd come to see this activity as a mix of Cassie beating herself up, Marco whining, Tobias and Ax watching the dramatics, and Jake trying to keep from getting a headache. This time, I was interested to see how everyone was doing with it. I was going to keep my promise to the Ellimist – I was going to do my part to try to keep the engine running.

Once we were all human (except Tobias) and comfortable, Ax surprised us all by starting things off.

(I have an issue to bring to your attention,) Ax said formally, as if what he had to say was important. (As you know, FBI Special Agent Ruzzoni helped me beat the security in a timely manner. But he also had a request – he claims to be "out of the loop" of Project AC-1, which he believes is your government's awareness and involvement in an alien invasion. It is probably a real information-gathering project – not even the Yeerks can escape _some _notice as they traipse about this planet. But this Ruzzoni seems to think we're operatives working on the AC-1 file. He wants to meet us – or more specifically, the hacker known to him as Mr. Fantastic.)

"No way," Marco said instantly. "If the FBI doesn't trust him with the info, we can't trust him with our lives. I'm not about to believe this guy thinks we're the X-files team for alien invasion."

I thought about it. "I don't know about that, Marco…maybe the fact that the FBI doesn't trust him says something for him. Maybe the Yeerks are in better control of the government than we know, and it's _them _keeping Ruzzoni in the dark."

"I don't see how we're ever going to know that," Cassie said. "Trusting him, especially to the point of meeting, is going to be dangerous."

Jake appeared conflicted. "I can see both sides. I mean, without his help, we'd probably be toast. That would indicate he's definitely not working for the Yeerks." He scratched his head. "Let's be logical – what does he have to gain from meeting us? What do _we _have to gain from a meeting with him?"

(Best case scenario? He wants to find out about AC-1, but knows he has to go outside to find out, because he knows something fishy is going on. We fill him in about the Yeerks. He takes our word and keeps it to himself. He'll know enough to protect himself, and we'll have an inside man in the FBI. That's the best we can hope for,) Tobias said.

"Yeah, that's best case," Marco agreed. "Worst case, he's Visser Three in disguise and eats us all whole. War over. No way," he said again. "We can't chance it."

"When does he want to meet?" Jake asked Ax almost absentmindedly.

(He left it open-ended. He gave me a very obscure way to contact him. He will let us decide the time and place of the meeting.)

Marco did a one-eighty. "Whoa, that doesn't sound like a Yeerk setting a trap. That sounds like a guy desperate to find out what he's in the middle of. Maybe we _can _work out a meeting with the guy."

"I guess we have to," I agreed. I didn't really care, didn't see what having one FBI agent on our team would do for us, but I was still sort of aware of intangibles. The Ellimist's trip had me looking for connections that might not have even been there – I was just open to things I hadn't been before.

"Yeah, but our way. We'll get a time and place set up, then Ax will be the face-to-face of the meeting." He held up a hand to stop the outbursts from everyone. "The rest of us will be there, we just won't be visible," he assured us. "We can't have the FBI knowing any of our faces. If this goes screwy, they'll be looking for a guy who doesn't exist. His fingerprints aren't in any database."

"I don't know," Marco fretted. "I can see about a hundred ways this can turn out bad."

Jake smiled. "That's why it's a good thing we have as long as we need to plan and prepare."


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: **…and the results are in! The last chapter saw a jump in reviews/readers…up from 5% to 17.5%. I'm really excited about that. I _still _can't figure out this fandom…just posted a new one shot yesterday, and it's already had 26 signed in readers, 2 reviews. You can do math...totally lame. Anyway, to the people who are reading this that actually take the time to encourage me, I'd never quit on you, you know that. Even if I got mad enough to take this fic down and stop posting, I'd still send you the ending. Anyway, thanks for helping out if you reviewed the last one, and for God's sake, keep it up!

Chapter 20

What's the one place where there's always a lot of people, but no one is paying attention to each other?

That was our biggest problem in trying to figure out a place to meet Ruzzoni. And it was actually Cassie that figured it out.

Me and Marco had been arguing the advantages of meeting him at The Gardens verses the mall when Cassie had spoken up quietly. "We need lots potential witnesses if things get ugly, to keep the Yeerks from showing themselves…but we need those people to never know we were there if it goes according to plan. That means their eyes need to be on something interesting to them the whole time we're there, unless we have to have a fight. I'm thinking baseball game."

Jake had stared for a minute, then his face had broken out into a sunny grin. "Cassie, you're a _genius_! It's outdoors, thousands of witnesses, _if _we need them…but until we do, every last one of them will be looking at the field. And the pro team just so happens to be playing a game tomorrow."

We'd spent the rest of the afternoon going over every facet of the meeting and subsequent conversation Ax would be having with Ruzzoni. Cassie and Jake would be in flea morph on his body, to help him with unforeseen situations. Tobias, as always, would be our eye in the sky, floating above the stadium. Marco and I would be watching the meeting from several rows above them, close to a bathroom in case Ax needed back-up.

The next day, outside the stadium, Marco and I drifted with Tobias. Even though we were almost a half a mile up, we could clearly see Ax hand over the ticket Jake had gotten him and enter the stadium. After a moment, we saw him exit the concourse and start climbing the stairs to his seat. (All right, let's go,) I told Marco, and we began our descent toward a condemned press box at the top of the stadium. That was where we'd demorph and make our way to the nosebleed section to keep an eye on the meet.

(Good luck!) Tobias called after us. (I got your backs!)

(We know,) I told him. Marco and I got into the press box unnoticed, and demorphed among the rat traps and fossilized popcorn and peanuts. We slipped out and made our way to our positions, and stopped about fifteen rows above Ax, who was calmly sitting in his seat looking out at the field, where the players were warming up. As we watched, a guy in a white shirt, red tie, and home team ball cap sat next to him. We couldn't see his face from where we were, but we knew it was Ruzzoni. He was wearing the hat we told him to wear.

Jake dutifully repeated their conversation so we could hear it.

"Are you Mr. Fantastic?" Ruzzoni asked quietly.

"I am," Ax replied. "What can I do for you, Agent Ruzzoni?"

"You can tell me anything – _anything _– about AC1."

"I am not with your government and I am not familiar with that project," Ax told him honestly.

Ruzzoni thought about that. "I believe you. If I told you what _I _know, or at least what I suspect…would you be able to confirm or deny anything?"

"I will, as long as it doesn't put me in danger." I nodded my approval – we'd decided on the solo mystery hacker approach, and Ax was playing it right.

"Basically, I believe we're under attack by an unseen alien force. Something like a real-life Invasion of the Body Snatchers." I was worried Ax wouldn't get the reference, but he nodded like he did. "I know enough not to trust anyone inside my own division. Am I off-base?" Ruzzoni sounded excited to finally be getting some answers.

"No, you're more right than you think, probably," Ax told him. "Especially the part about you not trusting anyone."

"How can I trust you?" he asked, and it was a fair question. Luckily, Ax had the answer.

"Because you and I were the only two people who kept the…invaders…from using human nuclear weapons against this planet. I don't know if the FBI was at the silo to help the invaders or to stop them. Either way, they weren't going to be able to stop the missiles. You and I did that."

"You were there," Ruzzoni said, and it wasn't a question. "What did you see? Were there aliens there?"

"The less you know about that, the better," Ax told him. "All you really need to know is that you can't tell who is an enemy by looking at them. I work against them. If you want to fight them, you need to work with me and me alone. Any other course of action is almost sure to get you killed or captured."

The crowd roared as the home team cranked a homer. I couldn't help but to glance away from the meeting to check the action, and it was what allowed me to see the danger sneaking up on Ax and Ruzzoni.

I saw the cop – that wasn't unusual at a pro sporting event. What _was _unusual was the way he was focused on Ax and Ruzzoni. He was the only person in the stadium not watching the player round the bases to score. He was also sneaking, almost tip-toeing, up behind Ax and Ruzzoni. "Marco!" I hissed, and pointed.

"Yep, there it is," he said tensely. "Ruzzoni was followed – the Yeerks are making their move! Look in his hand!"

Sure enough, a small chrome device with a blinking red light was extending from the cops fist. It definitely wasn't a piece of standard, police-issue equipment. And he was only a couple of rows up from Ax and Ruzzoni, and closing on them fast. Too fast for us to morph. Too fast for us to even get to them _without _morphing. I opened my mouth to shout a warning, but Marco clapped his hand over my mouth. "No!" he hissed. "Don't give us away, too!"

I watched helplessly as the cop approached our unsuspecting friend and new possible ally. I started running toward them, even though I'd never get there in time. The cop extended the device in his fist toward the back of Ax's neck. Ax would never know what hit him.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: **Thank you to everyone who took the time to review! I'm sorry about taking a while to update…caught a flu virus that could have well been an Andalite quantum virus – it was that bad. I'm not 100%, but I hope it doesn't affect this next chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 21

I opened my mouth to yell, despite Marco's warning. I couldn't let Ax get assassinated, it wasn't even a question. I would have rather given myself away to the Yeerks and gone into hiding than ever let that happen. Before I could shout, I saw a shadow fall over the cop's face. Instantly, I knew what it was – how could I have forgotten about Tobias? He would _never _miss something like this, and I've said it before – when quick action is necessary, nobody reacts quicker than Tobias.

The cop noticed the shadow, too. He frowned and looked up to see what was suddenly blocking out the sun…and in doing so, he presented Tobias with a gruesomely fantastic target. Tobias hit him, and the cop screamed and dropped his weapon - he would need a seeing-eye dog for the rest of his life. Several dozen people turned to see what all the commotion was, and Marco grabbed my arm and hustled me away. "We are outta here," he insisted, but I kept an eye on the situation as he pulled me away. Ax played it cool – he acted like he was trying to get away from the suddenly crazy cop, but didn't stop moving down the long aisle of downward stairs. Our meeting with Ruzzoni was done, and he knew it. Ruzzoni was out of there, too, going a different direction than Ax. I didn't miss that he scooped up the weapon the cop dropped before he took off, though.

(Will someone with thought speech _please _tell us what the hell is going on?) Jake asked, sounding grumpy. I guess someone did, because he didn't ask again. Marco and I slipped back into the abandoned press box when we were sure no one was looking and started our morphs. Not that I was competitive or anything, but I was finished morphing a full twenty seconds earlier than he was. As we flew out through the broken window, I spotted Tobias, already 200 feet above the top of the stadium again, keeping an eye on everything.

(Nice save back there, Tobias,) I told him.

(Don't act like you didn't trust me to be there,) he replied privately, and he sounded a little huffy. (I saw you running toward that cop. What were you thinking? You could have blown everything.)

(Don't be like that,) I told him, also in private thought-speech. (It's not that I didn't trust you – not at all. I just saw Ax in trouble and I reacted.) It was the truth. (I will _always _trust you to be there. For me, and for all of us.)

(Good,) he said - it didn't sound like he was mad anymore. (Because I _will _always be there.) He switched over to normal, broad-band thought speech. (There's Ruzzoni, in the silver Cadillac, leaving parking lot twelve. What do you think, Ax? Is he on the level?)

(I believe him to be exactly what he says he is – a free human among a powerful government division which has been infiltrated by the Yeerks. Though to what degree they've taken over the Cybercrime division, I cannot say.)

(How can we use him, then?) Jake asked. I liked how he didn't mince words, and there was no hesitation in his tone as he talked about using a fellow human. He understood that we absolutely, positively _had _to make use of every possible advantage. (How can having Ruzzoni on our team help?)

(It's got to be a one-way street,) Marco said. (If we're going to deal with him, we have to keep him in the dark while finding out what he knows. He's not going to like that.)

(I think, after today, he'll be more okay with it than you think,) Cassie said. (He saw firsthand how much the Yeerks know and how far they'll go.)

(Well, all I know is _somebody _set a tail on him,) I noted. (He was definitely followed. We have to assume the Yeerks are going to take him anytime now. I don't think we can have anything to do with the guy anymore. I think this one's a wash.)

(I'm with Rachel,) Marco said, surprising me. (It's too much risk for too little reward.)

(I agree,) Jake said, and in my opinion, that settled it. We all started to drop some altitude as we got closer to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

(No more Ruzzoni,) Cassie agreed.

(No more Ruzzoni,) Tobias repeated. (I think we came away from this okay. We stopped the Yeerks, kept them from tearing up our forest…not to mention unleashing nukes on us. They know that there are going to be a lot of wary eyes in the government looking for this sort of stuff now. If I had to guess, they're going to back off and stay quiet, at least for a while.) I realized that all of us were in agreement, which was a rarity these days.

As we went in for a landing, a booming voice bloomed in my head, and I almost crashed into a roof beam of the barn. (Well done, Rachel. The rift that had formed between the Animorphs has been repaired. The bonds are stronger than they were before. You have fulfilled your potential. Stay strong, and keep the others strong – they will always need you.)

I looked around at my demorphing friends, and I said to the Ellimist, (I'll always need them, too. Thank you, for everything.)

(Ha ha,) the voice boomed. (I did not interfere. _You _fixed things. Stay strong,) he repeated.

(I will,) I said to thin air, and Cassie, fully demorphed, spun to look at me.

"What did you say, Rachel? And why aren't you demorphing?"

(Nothing,) I said, laughing to myself as I began to demorph. (Nothing at all.)

**A/N: **I know this one was a little shorter than the others, but it was the right place to end it. I have a short epilogue coming up, and then I'll start on the next series-style book. Yes, there _is _another one coming, and soon! Enjoy the epilogue, and I hope you enjoyed this story!


	22. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

The six of us were a little uncomfortable, all crammed into Ax's scoop, but he'd said he had something we had to see. It was a few days after the baseball game fiasco, and we'd all been getting along abnormally well – as the Ellimist undoubtedly knew we would. We gathered around Ax's computer monitor, and I read the e-mail he pulled up for us.

**To Fantastic,**

**It's the guy from the game. I'm safe. I left my job – don't trust any of them anymore. In hiding. Will spend my time searching databases for AC-1 information, and will send you anything I find. Don't look for me – you won't find me. I will help you until the AC-1 crisis is over. My new codename is Shadowghost – any communications from me will be labeled as such. Good luck – to both of us.**

"No way," I said as I finished reading. "Ruzzoni is a _hell _of a lot smarter than we gave him credit for."

"Do you know what this means?" Cassie asked. "We have an ally. A real, live ally. A smart one, too."

Marco gave Jake a high-five. Even Ax smiled with his eyes. We hadn't had a whole lot to be optimistic about since we'd met Elfangor in that construction site. I thought to myself that this was enough to keep us going for a while longer.

(A little optimism goes a long way,) the Ellimist told me, and I wasn't even surprised to hear from him again. After all, he could claim he didn't interfere all he wanted – but, after this, I was going to count him every bit as much of an ally as Ruzzoni.


End file.
